Sonic: Hedgehog Mania
by Nonexistinghero
Summary: It's a story I wrote using members of Gamefaqs as characters. It's mostly written in 1st person. There are some 3rd person chapters. It's about a guy from this world that gets transfered to a different world, and he turned into a hedgehog in the process.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Prologue**

I went to bed, but when I woke up I was in a different world. I didn't think it was possible. I could be dreaming, but a dream has never been so clear. I take a good look around. All I can see is sand, nothing more. The ground seems to be closer. I look down, then look at my hands and body. "What the hell? I turned into... some kind of animal?" It takes me a few seconds to realize I look like a hedgehog. One from the Sonic Universe to be exactly. After testing out my new body, it seems I have a lot more speed and power than I had in my human form. My stamina won't decrease from running either. I decide that there's no use doing nothing, so off I go.

After wandering for a few hours, I notice something weird. It's a blue flash! It stops before I even realize it. It's Sonic! The greatest video game character!

Sonic: "Hey pal. Where am I?"

Me: "I wouldn't know. (I guess I should just pretend I don't know him.) Who are you?"

Sonic: "Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. And you?

Me: "(my real name? Heh, no way) I'm Hero."

Sonic: "Hero who?"

Me: "Hero...Red"

Sonic: "So you don't know where we are either? You need a ride?"

Me: "Ah... sure."

So... he tells me to grab his arm. Sonic takes off at an incredible speed. And he's only going faster and faster. I just couldn't imagine that speed would put up so much strain on the body. After a few minutes we arrive in a town. I drop down exhausted on the ground. So this is what his friends have been through.

Sonic: "Man, you're no fun!"

Me: "Hey, it was my first time traveling faster than the speed of sound!"

Sonic: "We went only went 2 times the speed of sound. Anyway, i'm off to check out this town. I gotta find my friends. See ya!"

He's gone in the crowd before I can say goodbye. "Man, does that guy have no patience at all?" I stand up, and look at the city. It seems Sonic and I weren't the only newbies here. And apparently... THERE'S ONLY HEDGEHOGS!

Oh well, time to check out the city.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New characters(s) **

**Sonic the Hedgehog**  
Age: 16  
This guy needs no further introduction

Name: **Hero Red**  
Age: 19  
Gamefaqs member name: **nonexistinghero**  
Color: Red  
Spikestyle: They point a bit up, then go backward. In the back they go diagonally up. It looks a bit like a spikey flame.  
Others: Blue sneakers  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: At start of story  
First appearance: Chapter 1  
Role: Most of the story is written in his view. He's also one of the main characters, and the one that leads the party in the beginning. He's one that barely loses his cool.  
Personality: Nice and smart guy. Though very arrogant, prideful and kind of careless. He's very observant and can read through others easily.  
Backround: Plays a lot of computergames, namely Sonic games.  
Special powers: Power burst when in critical condition, reading opponents 

**Status growth:  
Power: 7/10  
Battle speed: 8/10  
Endurance: 7/10  
Melee fighting: 7/10  
Strategy: 9/10  
Running speed: 8/10**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Food... water...**

I end up wandering around the city for a good couple of hours, desperately trying to get some money. I need to get something to drink, and everyone wants money. Not even performing with my new powers gets me money because everyone can do those things, and many of them can do even more. I went from great warrior in my own world, to wimpy loser in this one. My first priorities are food and water right now. I can always train later. It would be very strange if my talent and potential suddenly became worthless here.

When the evening comes i'm just about to give up, but then I overhear some people talking. There is a hidden food stash with plenty of water to the west of the city. It takes a few hours to get there, I heard. But I will make it, I hope.

Exhausted I start to run west. Good thing that running doesn't drain any stamina. It took a while, but I'm finally there. They said it was hidden, but it's just an open oasis. I suppose it could be called hidden, because it's hard to find in a desert environment. I drink and eat to regain my strength. Then I let myself fall on my back, to watch the beautiful night sky. I fall asleep pretty fast.

Heavy voice: "Hey, you there!"

I get up very fast. Too fast, because my head bumps against something hard. Then I notice him. A dark green hedgehog. He wears a pair of black sunglasses. He's a bit taller than me too.

Heavy voice: "You're Knuckles, aren't you?"

Me: "Heh, no way. I'm Hero. Hero Red. Now tell me your name. And how the hell can you mistake me for Knuckles!

A moment of silence occurs...

Me: "Wait a minute! You ARE talking about Knuckles The Echidna, are you?"

Heavy voice: "My name is Regulus Bomb. And yes, I am talking about that Knuckles."

Me: "Hmmm... you don't happen to be from another world now, do you?"

Regulus: "As a matter of fact, yes. One moment i'm riding my bike, then i'm in a city all of a sudden. And I became a freakish green hedgehog. Within minutes I got thrown out of the city because of harassment.

Me: "You're a pervert?"

Regulus: "I saw a pink hedgehog walking around. I figure her name is Amy Rose for reasons I shall not mention. So I tap her shoulder and she starts screaming and yelling. Anyway, if Amy is here I think Knuckles and some others might be here too."

Me: "Are you talking about the cast of Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Regulus: "You know!"

Me: "Seems we're from the same world. Sonic gave me a ride to the city. He's gone now."

Regulus: "You've seen Sonic?"

Me: "Yep. He's quite... impatient. Wanna go look for other Sonic characters?"

Regulus: "Hell yeah!"

Shortly after starting the 2nd day, i'm not all alone in that world. He's a bit of a strange guy, with one hell of a heavy voice. Then again, everyone in this world seems to be strange, even if they didn't initially lived in it. We need to know where we need to go, and for that we need to go back to that city. Regulus may have bee kicked out, but i'll find out some way to get the both of us in. We will use the oasis as a base for now.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character(s)**

Name: **Regulus Bomb**  
Age: 17  
Gamefaqs member name: **Regulusbomb**  
Color: Dark Green  
Spike style: Pointing up, like Super Sonic.  
Others: Dark sunglasses, red-yellow walking shoes  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: At start of story  
First appearance: Chapter 2  
Role: Loyal character of the good side. Often he gets in strange, funny situations. Or he simply just makes a wrong comment or does something wrong...  
Personality: Just a very nice guy. Easy to excite. Doesn't think before acting mostly. That doesn't mean he's dumb though, since he's actually pretty smart. He's very strong and very tough, and would never hurt his friends.  
Backround: A gamer... he's pretty surprised when he ended up in another world.  
Special powers: None yet

**Status growth:  
Power: 10/10  
Battle speed: 5/10  
Endurance: 9/10  
Melee fighting: 9/10  
Strategy: 7/10  
Running speed: 6/10****  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Search **

Getting into the city was easy enough. No one recognized Regulus. We split up to attain more information in a shorter time period. We will meet up at the same place we entered.

Hours and hours pass. No one knows anyone of the Sonic cast. Still only hedgehogs too. It's pretty dark now. I'm on my way to the meeting spot, and see a female hedgehog that drops her money. I grab the money, and being the honest guy that I am, go up to her to return it. She's pink. She's... Amy Rose.

Me: "Amy?

Amy: "Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

Me: "Ah... you dropped money. And uhm... Sonic told me about a pink hedgehog named Amy."

Amy: "There are hundreds of pink hedgehogs here! I don't don't trust you. What have you done to Sonic!"

She readies here pico pico hammer. That thing is HUGE. It doesn't seem nearly as huge in the games.

Me: "Whoa, hold it!"

Amy: "Hmpf"

She stares at me. Then walks away. I yell to her she I still need to give her money back, but she ignores it. Then... I just can't think of anything anymore. It's pretty hard talking with these guys. Oh well... at least I got some money now. I buy something to eat and drink for me and Regulus, and return to the meeting spot.

After waiting for another hour however... he doesn't seem to return. Did something happen? There's no one outside anymore. Just me. Or so I think. But I get the feeling someone is staring at me. It's not long, and someone whistles. I look behind me. Far in the back, on a roof, there is standing someone. I can't see who it is, but it's clear that the whistling came from him. Then he runs away. I run after him. I have a feeling it has something to do with Regulus.He's fast. I can barely keep up. After a few minutes he finally goes into a building. That's exactly what I was waiting for! Of course I immediately go after him.

Upon entering the building, I stop. It's dark, and I can't see very clear. "Tell me where Sonic is, or i'll hurt you friend." says a spooky voice. I have great hearing, so I rush into the direction the voice came from with full speed. Then I hit something. I hear it falling on the ground. Regulus is rock hard! At least his head is. I'm sure it's not Regulus.

Kidnapper: "Argh, damn you! That hurt!"

Me: "Heh, wimp."

He stands up and punches me in my face. It's a pretty hard punch, but not hard enough to floor me. Then I hit him in his stomach. Before I can get a second one in, i'm blinded by the lights. A black red hedgehog is there. It's none other than Shadow! He looks... pretty annoyed. Regulus got his mouth taped shut. And the kidnapper is an orange hedgehog.

Shadow: "Hmpf, what are you losers doing here? This is where I live."

Kidnapper: "It is? I spend last night here, but there wasn't anyone."

Shadow: "That's because I didn't live here back then."

Me: "So... you just barge into this place and declare it your home?"

Shadow: "You all look like me. But none of you are even good enough to be my fakes?"

Kidnapper: "Can't we... share this place?"

Shadow: "Get out!"

Kidnapper: "But..."

Shadow kicks the kidnappers ass, and mine as well. He just... throws Regulus out. I figure the kidnapper isn't such a bad guy after all.

Me: "So, what's your name?"

Kidnapper: "Why do you care?"

Me: "Just tell me, or i'll kick your ass."

Kidnapper: "I don't really feel like fighting... Okay, i'm Overdrive Vercetti.

Me: "I'm Hero Red"

I hear some mumbling. It's Regulus! I totally forgot about him. I untie him and remove the tape.

Me: "This guy is Regulus Bomb. Overdrive, it seems you're looking for Sonic. We are too. Want to come along?"

Regulus: "He beat me with a bat!"

Me: "He's not bad. Come on, it'll be fun!

Overdrive: "I will come along. Where are we headed?

Me: "Back to the base."

Overdrive: "What's the base?"

Me: "Free food, water, and a good place to sleep."

Regulus: "Since when are you the leader Hero?"

Me: "I'm not. We have the same goals. There is no reason not to do this together.

We go back to the base. And explain everything to Overdrive. Well... there isn't much too explain. Sonic characters are hard to talk or argue with. So after Amy and Shadow we go back to chasing Sonic. Overdrive mentions something about a HUGE city, north of the city where we came from. There is some kind of big event there. A lot of people are going to that city. It seems Sonic might be there too. He will surely be drawn to it.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character(s)**

Name: **Amy Rose**  
Age: 13  
This character needs no further introduction

Name: **Shadow the Hedgehog**  
Age: Unknown  
This character needs no further introduction

Name: **Overdrive Vercetti**  
Age: 16  
Gamefaqs member name: **Vercetti 71 (gs)**  
Color: Sick Orange  
Spike style: All point up diagonally.  
Others: Black running shoes  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: At start of story  
First appearance: Chapter 3  
Role: Loyal character of the good side. Mostly just follows orders, because he doesn't really know what he should do. He hangs out a lot with Regulus.  
Personality. Pretty strong and fast, but not too smart when it comes to fighting. He's loyal though, like a dog.  
Backround: A gamer... he's pretty surprised when he ended up in another world.  
Special power: None yet

**Status growth:  
Power: 8/10  
Battle speed: 7/10  
Endurance: 8/10  
Melee fighting: 10/10  
Strategy: 4/10  
Running speed: 9/10**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 - Battle city**

It's been 5 days since the three of us teamed up. Regulus and Overdrive officially declared me the travel leader, since i'm wiser than them when it comes to traveling. We've finally arrived in the city of the big event. Evolutia, the city of life. Of course, I've asked around what the big event exactly is. I found out some time ago, but I haven't told my companions yet. I promised them to tell it as soon as we arrive. "Notice the big dome in the middle of the city?" I ask them.

Regulus: "Yeah. We are going there, are we not?"

Overdrive: "So what is the event? You said that Sonic will be there for sure, right?"

Me: "Yeah, he will be there. The event is a tournament. A tournament that decides who the strongest hedgehog is. Sonic will definitely try to prove himself. So will Shadow. And knowing Amy, she will participate in the tournament to get to Sonic."

Regulus: "Wow, pretty neat thinking."

Me: "There's still more than 3 months left before it starts though."

Overdrive: "Aw man! That's too friggin' long. What are we gonna do for 3 whole months!"

Me: "We'll check around the city for now, and we'll be registering ourselves for the tournament at the Life Dome."

Overdrive and Regulus: "We!"

Me: "You got a problem with it? Anyway, i'm going to train most of the time."

Overdrive: "Sure, i'll join. I'm gonna kick ass in the tournament."

Regulus: "Heh, just wait until you face my fists."

The city is humongous and the dome is gigantic. It does not seem that big at all in the outer part from the city. It takes us 2 hours to get to the dome. All the time we ran at about 50 miles an hour. After registering in the dome, Overdrive says he wants to train alone. So... he leaves the party for now. We'll see him again at the tournament for sure, and maybe even before. But the city is really big, so the chances of seeing him again before the tournament starts is slim. Regulus decides to stick with me.

Regulus and I hang around the Life Dome for awhile. It's even bigger from the inside, than it is from the outside. Time flies by, and Regulus notes it's getting dark already. We leave the Life Dome, and search for a place to live and train. After a few hours of search, no success. There isn't nearly anyone outside anymore, and it seems someone has been following us for a while. It feels as if it's very close. But... I can't see it. "Show your face, you coward!" I yell. A pair of shining yellow eyes appear right in front of me. "I am right he" Regulus punches him in the face before the creature can finish his sentence. He's knocked out. An evil laugh then comes out of nowhere. "So, the one I hired wasn't as good as he said he was. Heh, Jackal Night can take care of this little problem all by himself. Ah, hedgehogs from another world. Such pitiful creatures. Jackal shall show you the power of a true hedgehog!" A flash appears before my eyes, blinding me. Before I knew... I was unconscious on the ground...

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character(s)**

Name: **Jackal Night**  
Age: 23  
Gamefaqs member name: **Knux Chao**  
Colors: Black, orange tipped spines, pale skin  
Spike style: Long, near jester-like  
Others: No gloves, wears a dark purple trenchcoat, dark brown boots  
Side: Evil  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 10 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 4  
Role: Crazed minion of The Malicious.  
Personality: He argues a lot with his fellow minions. But he doesn't make any mistakes, ever. Though he's a bit insane, his acting is perfect. And his hacking skills are unsurpassable too.  
Backround: Still a secret  
Special power: His abiltity to raise his speed to the extreme. Almost as fast as Sonic and Shadow. His battle speed can be raised too, so it's not just limited to running.

**Status growth  
Power: 5/10  
Battle speed: 10/10  
Endurance: 5/10  
Melee fighting: 9/10  
Strategy: 8/10  
Running speed: 9/10****  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - In the dark**

Slowly I wake up. I still feel the pain in the back of my head. I open my eyes. My sight is still blurred, but I notice immediately that i'm not lying on the ground. Instead, i'm all tied up, on a horizontal standing platform, somewhere on the side of a big hall. It's pretty dark inside. Only the half-barred windows let through some light. About 30 feet to the left of me is a black, unknown hedgehog who's also captured. Even further is the captured Regulus. In the middle of the room is a hedgehog in a capsule. He has a black head and red fur. One of the few who wears a pants for a change too, a yellow one. It's silent. Not one of them is awake. It seems I was the first one.

After several minutes of this awkward silence, I hear some people coming. I'm about to pretend that i'm still unconscious, but I notice a camera hanging. It won't have much use if they saw me, so I'll just keep staring at them. Trying to annoy them. There are 2 of them. They come close enough for me to make out what they look like. But... I don't recognize any of them. "Boss will come soon? Jackal can't wait much more longer!" I recognize that voice! It's the one who took me down in a flash. He doesn't seem to have things all straight in his mind. I think that he is Jackal, because people like that always talk about themselves in 3rd person. I wonder why he didn't kill me? "Hmpf, you fool. Why do you always act like a clown? Boss will get here tonight. Hopefully Summers will be awake by then." A girl? Yeah, it's definitely a girl. But... what's with her spikes? She doesn't seem to be all that... girly or... fresh. Maybe it's the gothic style of hedgehogs? She wears black leather clothes after all. And she's grey, very pale too. The clown-like man starts laughing in a really twisted way. I never liked the sound of people that laugh like that. You never know what they might do. He notices that i'm awake, and continues to stare at me. He's totally freaking me out. "What do you want from me? Who are you?" I ask. He starts laughing, yet again in that twisted way. "Cut that out, you fool!" says the girl. She slowly walks toward me. "You have guts for asking questions while you're captured, don't you? Alright, i'll answer your questions." I notice she has holes in her body, blood dried up. Her spikes are rotten, and one of them is even halfway gone. I didn't want her to get closer. But she kept walking. "I am Revenant." She stops about 6 feet in front of me. "That fool over there is Jackal Night. And what do we want with you, you asked? Boss asked us to collect hedgehogs from another wor" Jackal interupts her, and speaks fast. "What are you doing Revenant you fool. You shouldn't tell them our plans, our PLANS! Boss won't like that! Boss won't like that at all." Revenant runs up to Jackal and slaps him in the face. "Huh, there! You could have said it another way, you freak. Don't insult me again." Revenant starts leaving the room. I hear Jackal mumbling to himself, thanks to my great hearing. "Freak freak freak freak." Now he starts laughing again. Ugh... i'm getting sick of it.

I hear some noise. I look up, and a few seconds later someone busts in through a barred window. No it's not just one. A few seconds later someone busts in from another side. The black hedgehog and Regulus are waked by the noise. "Hey there, Hero and Regular. You're in a bit of pinch, aren't ya?" It's Overdrive! "Hey, my name is Regulus you bastard! You always say my name wrong!" Overdrive apologizes for it... as usual. "I'm sorry. I'll get it right next time." I wonder... who's that fire colored hedgehog? He frees Regulus, and i'm freed by Overdrive. The black hedgehog is freed by... a small blue flying hedgehog with a giant Windmill shuriken? Looks a lot like a Chao to me. "Jackal shall take care of you guys!" Jackal says. Revenant looks at the fire colored hedgehog. "Let's get out Jackal. We can't beat 6 opponents, and there's a flame user among them." She's afraid from fire? "We have to take Summers." Jackal responds. They run to Summers, but the fire colored hedgehog breaks the capsule, and carries him away on his shoulder before Jackal and Revenant can get there. Both of them stop. Revenant says something. "Go ahead, leave. We'll get all of you back in a few days anyway." Then they run away.

We leave the building, it's broad daylight outside. The black hedgehog leaves with his small buddy. But he introduces himself first and his buddy too, and apologizes for what he did. His name is Solar Blade, and his buddy is named Chao. Seems I was right about his buddy. And he was the one that Regulus knocked out with a single punch last night. They captured him too because he was told lies about us, and then decided to help Revenant and Jackal. We hire some rooms in an inn. We talk about what we should do now. Summers is still unconscious. No one can tell when he'll wake up.

Me: "So... you're Blaze Krezne?"

Blaze: "You know me?"

Me: "I heard about you before. You're some kind of traveling hero, right?

Blaze: "Heh, yeah you got that right. Your buddy asked me for help, and I was already waiting for a chance to free Summers."

Me: "What's up with Summers?"

Blaze: "He is supposed to posses some amazing powers. I don't know what they are. But I have to prevent them from getting into the hands of The Malicious?"

Me: "The Malicious?"

Blaze: "He's the most powerful guy there is. He's evil too. If he gets Summers, he'll be invincible."

Regulus: "Ah... yeah... right. There is no such thing as some überpowerful guy."

Overdrive: "Yeah, I think so too."

Blaze: "The 3 of you, don't know about him? He's destroyed whole cities. After the rumours I heard I went to check it out. I've seen him destroy a whole city by himself!"

Overdrive: "You must be kidding, man!

Blaze: "I'm not. And... why don't you guys know about him. Everyone here knows."

Me: "I know Regulus and I are from another world. How about you, Overdrive?"

Overdrive: "You're from another world? Me too!"

Me: "I didn't notice... oh well. That clears things up."

Blaze: "Hmm, from another world, ey?

We speak about things for a few more hours. It's decided that when that Summers guy wakes up, we go to the north. There's been a sighting of a really weird looking hedgehog. Possibly from another world too. And we need to get away from here, because The Malicious is after us. Oh man, I really wanted to train for the tournament.

**End of chapter

* * *

New character(s)**

Name:** Solar Blade**  
Age: 18  
Gamefaqs member name: **Soolar121**  
Color: Pitch Black  
Spike style: Really sharp, straight backwards  
Others: Has a Chao-like hedgehog named Chao, whom carries his Windmill Shuriken most of the time  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: about 1,5 years when he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 4  
Role: Ninja hedgehog. He's on the good side, but sometimes not.  
Personality: Tries to act like a ninja, but because he isn't a real ninja he often makes himself look like a fool by doing so. He's a bit easy to manipulate too.  
Backround: Someone that liked ninja's a lot, and trained himself to become one. After he got transported to the Sonic universe for some unknown reason, he could actually strive to really become one. His powers increased a bit too. He saved a chao, and just named him Chao. Now they're best buddies that train together. Chao also carries Solars Windmill Shuriken. That's a big, four bladed shuriken. A few months later he got transported to the Hedgehog Mania world, and became a hedgehog. A hedgehog with many new powers. So he uses them to his advantage, and is a full fledged ninja when it comes to skill. Not just that, his skills make him better than real ninjas. His character however, doesn't. Chao became a hedgehog too. Solar roams the Hedgehog Mania world as a mercenary. He got tricked by Jackal Night, and ended up helping him to take capture Hero and Regulus.  
Special power: None yet

**Status growth:  
Power: 6/10  
Battle speed: 9/10  
Endurance: 6/10  
Melee fighting: 8/10  
Strategy: 7/10  
Running speed: 10/10**

Name: **Chao**  
Age: 2  
Gamefaqs member name: **Fictional character that Soolar121 made.**  
Color: Dark blue  
Spike style: All pointing to the back, closing in on eachother  
Side: Whatever side Solar is on, and that's good most of the time  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: about 1,5 years when he gets introduced in the story  
First appearance: Chapter 5  
Role: A ninja Chao, buddy of Solar Blade.  
Personality: Always ready to help his friends Solar when needed, though if Solar does something wrong he doesn't give him any help. He's quite smart too, for a Chao. But that's because he was transformed into a hedgehog when he was transported. He's still adapting and becoming smarter.  
Backround: Look at Solars backround  
Special power: Fly  
**  
Status growth:  
Power: 2/10  
Battle speed: 3/10  
Endurance: 1/10  
Melee fighting: 2/10  
Strategy: 7/10  
Flying/running speed: 5/10**

Name: **Revenant**  
Age: Unknown, but she was a young adult when she died  
Gamefaqs member name: **Gemerl**  
Color: Pale Grey with sickly green patches  
Spike style: Pointing down, and down diagonally backwards, most rotten and cracked, central spine is halfway gone  
Others: Wears black boots with spikes, spike armlets, black pants and black top, wears an earring  
Side: Evil  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 22 years before she gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 5  
Role: Loyal, but not so smart minion of The Malicious.  
Personality: She doesn't make plans. She just rushed into the situation, and fights. If she can't possibly win, she's smart enough not to fight. If she doesn't have any orders she won't fight unless it's self-defence. Because she tends to forget things sometimes, she often gets into arguements with her fellow minions.  
Backround: Still a secret  
Special powers: Zombie, weak against fire and light, immune against most magic and psionics  
**  
Status growth:  
Power: 10/10  
Battle speed: 9/10  
Endurance: 10/10  
Melee fighting: 9/10  
Strategy: 2/10  
Running speed: 6/10****  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 - To the cold north**

It's been 3 days since we started to stay at the inn. Summers is showing signs of being able to wake up at any time. It's early in the evening, and i'm walking outside alone. It's already dark. I'm going to the Life Dome. I need to buy some maps and traveling gear. Life Dome is like a giant mall, but with a huge arena inside of it too. All major events take place there.

About an hour later, i'm on my way back to the inn while carrying a heavy load. It's pretty heavy to carry the gear of 5 persons. Luckily, it's all in one big back pack. Everyone can carry their own stuff, once we're leaving. I hoped that everything would go flawlessly, but... The worst will always happen to me. A red hedgehog keeps staring at me. And he seems to be mad, although I can't possibly know about what. When I pass him by he proceeds to walk next to me. His spikes are the same as Sonic, and he has a scar on his left eye, his eyes are still intact though. "So, you're from another world?" He asks. I respond by looking him into the eyes. "If you join me, I shall spare your life once I take over this planet. What do you say?" What the! He can't be? "Whoever you are, my answer is no. I have no interest in ruling the planet." He jumps on a roof. "Huh, you most certainly have guts. I can see your spirit in your eyes. I am The Malicious. Remember it well, for you shall serve me soon. I will let you go for now, there is no place for you to run." He gets blasted by a beam of light out of nowhere, it continues on for several seconds. After the blast he's still undamaged. "Heh pathetic! You won't escape me either Summers. Your dark side shall awaken soon." Then he disappears. I look to the one responsible for the blast of light. It's Summers, yeah. He finally awoke. He did do an unnecessary thing though. Regulus and Blaze are there too.

Me: "So, you're Summers?"

Summers: "Summers the Hedgehog, to be exactly."

Regulus: "We figured it took you too long, so... yeah, you get it, right?"

Me: "Yeah, since I will need you guys. This equipment is heavy! Each of you will carry your own share.

All of them: "OO"

Me: "I still have to carry 2 persons worth of equipment. Don't whine, you wimps."

Blaze mumbles something to himself. "Bastard..." The others don't hear it, but I do. I decided not to respond on it. He already seemed to be a hotheaded person. It'd be best if I won't anger him too much. I am more worried about what The Malicious said. I'm sure my spirit will be strong enough to defy his will. But... what about Summers? His dark side shall soon awaken? I'll ask him later about it in private.

That night Blaze, Regulus and Overdrive are all asleep. Summers walks outside, so I decide to follow him. It's a good moment to talk to him too. Once outside...

Me: "So, what's the deal with you? Are you really on my side, or are you on the side of The Malicious?"

Summers: "I am a good guy. I really am. But... there's something inside me. I can't explain. It's eating me slowly away."

Me: "Your dark side?"

Summers: "I... don't know. I only know it's bad, it must be. It feels really awful."

Me: "Don't worry about it. If you think about it too much, it will really eat you away."

I went to my room to sleep after that. Summers stayed outside for a while, to think about things for a bit. I don't know when he returned, I was already asleep by that time. He was in his room when I woke up though. Right now we've just started our journey to the north.

After 6 days of travel, we finally arrive in the village. It got gradually colder, the more we traveled north. In the middle of the village, there's a cabin. We hear yells from it, and decide to check it out. There's someone inside. The strange hedgehog we heard about? "Help me, i'll make you something good! I'm Lexer, and they've locked me up for no good reason." It said. "Why should we believe you?" Regulus responded. "I have 2 fox tails, okay! That's it! That's why they locked me up! Come on! Free me!" He seemed to have it cold. "Okay, we'll free you." I said.

Overdrive: "Man, are you out of your mind! What if he eats us or something!"

Summers: "What have you been smoking pal?"

Me: "Regulus, just bust that cabin."

Regulus: "Okay. If anyone will be eaten, you will be eaten first."

Summers: "Where's Blaze?"

Blaze stands in the distance. "He won't eat me!" Heh, some friends they are. Their fighting skills are good, but they act like children most of the time. Regulus punches open the cabin with ease. His power went up a lot with little training. I wonder how good I got with the little training I did? The guy we freed steps out of the cage. He has grey fur and... What the hell? A Tails hedgehog?

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character **

Name: **Summers the Hedgehog (real name Jamie Summers)**  
Age: 21  
Gamefaqs member name: **UltimateSummers**  
Colors: Black head, Orange fur  
Spike style: Same as Sonic  
Others: Yellow pants, black-brown mountain shoes  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 17 years when he gets introduced in the story  
First appearance: Chapter 5  
Role: Good guy with great evil power within.  
Personality: A very wise hedgehog. He has a bit of a temper, especially when it involves his sister, and he's quite arrogant. He's got a bit of a passion to fight, and the evil within him confuses him a bit, influencing his actions. Due to this, he has a bit of a hard time controlling his emotions too, making it quite easy for him to lose his control.  
Backround: He was only 4 when he was transported to the Hedgehog Mania world, so he doesn't remember anything about his life as a human. His sister Jody was only 1 then. They were raised in a mysterious village, and trained to fight and defend themselves. The villagers knew, for some reaons, that they needed the skills. But they were thaught to never use them, unless it's really necessary. 5 Years ago, The Malicious came to the village. He had a short stay there, and learned about the special powers that Jamie has, and the evil he has within him. Because of that, he wanted to take Jamie with him. The villagers couldn't allow that, and The Malicious ended up wiping nearly all of them away. Two female villagers escaped, in two different directions. One of them had Jamie, while the other one had Jody. Both of the ladies died shortly after. Jamie then started his quest for more power to defeat The Malicious. He also started referring to himself as Summers the Hedgehog, trying to get red of the name Jamie. He doesn't really like it. He decided to run from The Malicious until he was powerful enough to face him head on. He was wrong in estimating the power of The Malicious, and got captured.  
Special power: Powerful energy based attacks (Heaven Cannon Big bullet of energy - Wave Motion Beam Beam of energy)

**Status growth:  
Power: 8/10  
Battle speed: 10/10  
Endurance: 8/10  
Melee fighting: 6/10  
Strategy: 5/10  
Running speed: 9/10**

Name: **Blaze Krezne**  
Age: 19  
Gamefaqs member name: **Magitek111**  
Colors: Fire red, orange and darkblue  
Spike style: Some of the ones near the front stick up, and the rest are like Sonics.  
Others: White-blue-red SOAP shoes.  
Side: Mostly good, but is easily manipulated  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 2 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 5  
Role: Good guy that does some stupid stuff everyone once in a while. He's a hero, though not very well known.  
Personality: Is hotheaded, so one can easily anger him. A bit of a macho guy, and he's quite easy to manipulate too. But nevertheless, he really enjoys doing good things.  
Backround: He always wanted to become a hero. As a human in his own world, that was kind of hard to do. Playing a hero can easily lead to getting arrested. But when he got into the Hedgehog Mania world, he could finally realize his dream! Heroes were needed there, and with his new powers he could easily become one. So that's what he did. His brother Aquis opposed that, and always got in his way. Blaze did mostly small deeds... but he did get some fame because of it. He's not nearly as well known as the bad guy who's known as The Malicious though. But once he beats him, he'll be the most famous hero of them all.  
Special power: Able to manipulate and and create flames and fire

**Status growth:  
Power: 7/10  
Battle speed: 8/10  
Endurance: 9/10  
Melee fighting: 6/10  
Strategy: 8/10  
Running speed: 8/10****  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 - The fast, the slow, and the stupid**

Lexer is about to say something, when suddenly... A blue flash arrives. That flash is none other than Sonic. "Tails?" He asked to Lexer. "Sonic!" He responds. "Man, am I glad to see you."

Me: "Uh... That's not Tails."

Sonic: "How would you know?"

Me: "Because Tails is orange and white. Not grey."

Sonic: "Only my buddy Tails has 2 tails."

Me: "Not anymore."

Lexer: "Yes, I am Tails. Don't listen to him!"

Me: "What's you're plane called then, Tails?"

Lexer: "That's easy, it's the Tsunami."

It's silent for several seconds. They seem like minutes. Sonic keeps staring at Lexer. "It's not?" Lexer asks then.

Me: "It's the Tornado. The Tornado 2, to be exactly."

Sonic: "Are you Tails?"

Me: "No, i'm not! Where the hell are all the other animals?"

Sonic: "How would I know? I'm not from this world."

A black flash arrives. "Sonic, you owe me a rematch!" It's Shadow. He wants a rematch? "I have better things to do. See ya!" Sonic runs off. In a mere second he's out of sight. Man, I really wish i'd be that fast? "Damn that hedgehog." Shadow looks our way. "Hey, it's you wimps. You know Sonic, right?"

Overdrive: "Just a bit, man. Just a bit."

Shadow: "Let's make a deal. You get him to fight in the tournament in The Life Dome."

Regulus: "And?"

Shadow: "That's it. If you don't, I shall beat you up."

Blaze: "Screw you, bastard!"

Blaze just couldn't keep his mouth shut. Shadow walks up to him, and pushes his head against Blazes forehead. "What did you say?" He's apparently... angered. But Blaze doesn't seem to back down at all. "I said, screw you, you bas" Shadow punches him down into the ground. Such power! Shadow thinks he's knocked out, but he couldn't be more wrong. Blaze punches Shadow unexpected in the face, and Shadow flies a few meters backward. "So, you want to fight?" Shadow uses his superspeed to rush to Blaze, but Blaze foresaw it and punches him in the face again. First Shadows legs are lifted into the air. Shadow keeps flying forward, and eventually his face goes under past the fist. Then he keeps flying into the same direction he ran to for about 60 feet. Now that was some hard blow! Blaze hurt his fist thanks to the immense speed. I thought Shadow would be knocked out for sure, but he stands up. It takes him some trouble, but he doesn't have nearly as much damage as I expected him to have. "Next time we meet, we are enemies. Prepare to lose." Then he runs off.

Regulus: "Great, now he's our enemy. Nice thinking, Blaze."

Blaze: "He called me a wimp!"

Overdrive: "Come on, that's still no reason to attack him!"

Me: "Never mind. It was bound to happen that Shadow became our enemy. One of use will face him in the tournament sooner or later."

Summers: "Sonic... and Shadow. They're some weird hedgehogs. Strangest ones i've seen."

Regulus: "Hah, just wait until you meet Amy."

Lexer: "There is nothing wrong with Amy! She is sweet and kind."

Me: "So you are from another world, right?"

Lexer: "I think so..."

Summers: "So, we found who we needed. What now?"

Me: "I... I didn't think this far yet. I thought it would took us a while to find this guy, so I didn't plan ahead yet."

Blaze: "How about we beat the crap out of Shadow, right now! I know I can take him!"

Summers suggests we stay at the inn until we know what to do. We tried to... but they don't want to take in Lexer. They say he's a freak. Oh well... Lexer then suggests we should go to the west. There's a village with friendly people there. It's only supposed to take only a few hours to get there.

That night, we finally arrive. All of us are tired. Lexer said that there were supposed to be friendly people there. But there doesn't seem to by anyone. It's mouse quiet. It's... empty.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character**

Name: **Lexer Adario**  
Age: 14  
Gamefaqs member name: **Adario (gs)**  
Color: Black hair & grey fur with black spots  
Spike style: short and spiked foward  
Others: Has two tails, for some odd reason. Wears the same kind of running shoes as Sonic, red colored.  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: 2 weeks before he gets into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 6  
Role: Inventor  
Personality: A bit bratty and arrogant to guys. To girls he's really nice though... most of the time. But that's mostly because of his age. He's really smart, and idolizes Miles "Tails" Prower.  
Backround: Was very gifted as a child, and made a lot of neat little gadgets then. When he got into the Hedgehog Mania world, some nice people in a small village took care of him. As soon as he heard rumours that Sonic was there too, he thought Tails was also in that world. But Tails wasn't, at that time. Lexer didn't know that, so he embarked on his quest. Not much later... he got captured in a small neighbouring village. He was seen as a freak because of his 2 tails. It's not just that... he insulted them too. Anyway, not much later Hero and co free him.  
Special power: None yet  
**  
Status growth:  
Power: 6/10  
Battle speed: 8/10  
Endurance: 7/10  
Melee fighting: 7/10  
Strategy: 10/10  
Running speed: 8/10**  



	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 - Dance of death**

We searched through the village. Yeah, no one here alright. What happened? Lexer is sure of it. He's been here for several days, or so he says. "Yo Lexer, are there any secret entrances or hideouts here?" Summers asks. "Not that I know of. But nearly every village normally has a gathering point near the village, in case of emergency." I suddenly hear a sound. But I don't see anything. This situation seems familiar. "Hello there, Hero." Blaze lights up a flame. It's the pitch black hedgehog and Chao.

Me: "What brings you here, Solar?"

Solar: "I heard rumours that The Malicious was here, so I hurried to this place."

Blaze: "Why are you searching for that dangerous man anyway?"

Solar: "Because he supposedly knows the secret to get out of this world. I want it, and i'm confident of my strength."

Summers: "Hero, get ready to fight. He obviously doesn't know how strong The Malicious is."

Hero: "Wait a minute!

Overdrive: "You can do it, man."

Solar: "Sure, i'll accept the challenge."

Summers: "Who said anything about challenging you? Me and Hero will demonstrate how powerful we are. Then add 2 times more strength, and then you have The Malicious 's strength."

Hero: "I'm not nearly as strong as you might think."

Summers: "Don't fool me! I've seen you train! You won't fool me by saying you're weak!"

Summers runs at me and tries to punch me in my face. Thanks to my reflexes I manage to dodge most of it. It still scraped my skin. "That's it! I won't hold back, Hero." I dodge his next punch, and then he tries to kick me. I dodge his kick and uppercut him at the same time. Summers goes airborne, makes a back-flip and gets some distance. He's much faster and stronger then me. But i'm able to easily predict what he does, and even dodge it. So this is what he was talking about. I dash to Summers. Just when he wants to kick, I jump while dashing and punch him in the face. His kick missed, and he flies backward to the ground. He lies on the floor for a while. Is he KO? No, his eyes are open. He's preparing something. I get into a defensive stance. I suddenly feel an overwhelming energy. Summers stands up. "Take this!" He gathers a lot of energy. At least... that's what it looks like. "HEAVEN CANNON!" It comes at me at high speed. It's way too fast for me to dodge. So I decide to block it. It hits my arms, but it still blows me very far backward. The pressure is immense, but I can't afford to remove my arms. If I do, i'm dead. The blast stops, and I still get pushed into a building by force it had. It drained nearly all my stamina. But i'm still standing. Summers seems to have used up a lot of energy too. He comes at me. When he's close, he continually makes combo's, and I dodge and block most of 'm. He gets some in though. He's full of openings, so I just attack back. From now on, it's just a race of endurance and will.

Suddenly someone grabs him from behind, just as he is about to hit me. It's a girl. "What are you doing, brother! Don't fight." I relax, and sit on the ground. The girl releases him, and Summers goes to sit on the ground too. Our fight got interupted, and i'm too tired to keep standing while doing nothing. The rest of the guys get closer. Not all of them are guys though. There seems to be a girl between them too. Who is she? She came along with the other girl?

Summers: "Jody, what are you doing here? I told you not to follow me long ago."

Jody: "You're not supposed to fight at all! Didn't you hear our parents last wishes? They wanted us to live a peaceful life here!"

Me: "Hey little girl. Fighting is unavoidable."

Jody: "You don't understand!"

Summers: "I'm sorry Jody, but if I want a peaceful life, I need to take care of things first."

He grabs her shoulder, and presses in a spot so that she falls asleep. Summers stands up and looks at Solar. "So, do you still think you're a match for The Malicious?" Solar sighs and looks to the ground. Then he looks to me, and scratches his head. "Nah, I don't even think I can beat Hero."

Regulus: "Why is Hero this strong? His technique is clearly inferior to yours, Summers. But yet... he beats you in hand to hand combat. Why?"

Summers: "He has a special ability. Once I move he knows exactly what i'm going to do. He thinks about 10 moves ahead. So even with his less speed, power and endurance he will still beat superior opponents."

Me: "I do?"

Solar: "You don't excel in anything, except for reading opponents. You fight strategically too, but that's because of the reading. You don't have any weak spots. All of this combined makes a great fighter."

Overdrive: "It's obvious your physical ability isn't up to any of us, except for Solar of course. He's weak."

Solar: "I have other qualities that make me great.

Girl: "So ah... I am stronger then Hero?"

Overdrive: "Oh, I forgot about you. You're a girl, how can you be stronger?"

Girl: "That's not my fault! I wasn't always a girl!"

Regulus: "Not always a girl?"

Girl: "I was a guy, before I got in this world. I changed my name after I got here, and am sort of used to it."

Lexer: "Seems like nearly everyone here is from another world. Anyone wants to make a confession?"

Yeah, it seems they have a confession to make. I thought only Regulus, Overdrive, Lexer, the girl and myself were from another world. But... after the confessions it seems that Solar and Blaze are too. I suspect Summers and his sister aren't from this world either, but he won't let anything loose. Oh man, I forgot to do something. "Hey, girl. What's your name? You'll be coming with us, right?" She calls herself Seria Idon. She won't say her old name, too bad. Summers has been awfully quiet for the last few minutes. He's about to walk to... somewhere. Some thin air flies toward him with a high speed, and he falls unconscious to the ground. It happened before I could react. My eyes lay on the unknown sword wielding hedgehog. Then I hear a twisted laugh. No doubt about it, that's Jackal. The others notice them too. There's more then just Jackal and the sword wielding hedgehog! Revenant and Malicious are there too! Oh man, how are we gonna get out of this!

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character**

Name:** Jody Summers **  
Age: 18  
Gamefaqs member name: **Fictional character that UltimateSummers made**  
Color: Pink  
Spike style: Rather short, pointing to the sides and down  
Others: Blue T-shirt and blue jeans with pink hearts, and a ponytail.  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 17 years when her brother got introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 8  
Role: A wise girl, good leader. Though she has to share leading the group with Hero Red most of the time.  
Personality: A very nice girl overal. She just wants a peaceful life for her and her brother, but that's not possible at the moment. She often forces her way in, when big decisions are being made. And that's not always a good thing. She has a habit of slapping people when they annoy her, or make rude comments about certain friends or herself.  
Backround: She was only 1 when she was transported to the Hedgehog Mania world, so she doesn't remember anything about her life as a human. Her brother Jamie (Summers) was 4 then. They were raised in a mysterious village, and trained to fight and defend themselves. The villagers knew, for some reaons, that they needed the skills. But they were thaught to never use them, unless it's really necessary. 5 Years ago, The Malicious came to the village. He had a short stay there, and learned about the special powers that her brother has, and the evil he has within him. Because of that, he wanted to take Summers with him. The villagers couldn't allow that, and The Malicious ended up wiping nearly all of them away. Two female villagers escaped, in two different directions. One of them had Jamie, while the other one had Jody. Both of the ladies died shortly after. Jody started a search for her brother, but there were so many hedgehogs that needed her help that it was too hard for her to just leave them. It slowed her down a lot, and as a result, she's been searching for her brother for 5 years now while also helping people.  
Special power: Powerful energy based attacks (Tornado Whirlwind made out of energy. Can be combined with many other attacks too. Energy burst Explosion of energy, very damaging and drains a lot of stamina)  
**  
Status growth:  
Power: 4/10  
Battle speed: 9/10  
Endurance: 5/10  
Melee fighting: 10/10  
Strategy: 10/10  
Running speed: 8**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 - Bad situation**

There they were, standing all around us. Our enemies. Three of them I know already, but there's one I don't. He's pretty hard to see, but his shiny black fur and spikes give away his position. Malicious starts talking. "Soon, his power shall awaken." Revenant walks up to Summers, and grabs him. "It's best if you people stay away now, unless you have a death-wish." she says. Jackal starts laughing again, but manages to keep it in a bit. "We will come back for you another time." Solar suddenly jumps at The Malicious from behind. He sneaked up on him while we were distracted. That doesn't help, since The Malicious just takes out an energy shield. He just gets thrown backward again. "You fool. Nothing can penetrate my shield. Not only can I use it to defend, but I can use it to attack as well." After that he punches Solar with his shield. Solar gets up again, and returns to the group by running very fast around The Malicious. When he's there, thin air just barely misses him. "A blade of wind?" I think out loud. The sword wielding hedgehog looks me straight in my eyes. "Yes, that's right. Wind Blade. A special ability only I can do. They call me Zero Zaca, the Samurai hedgehog." In the meantime, Regulus manages to get close to Jackal while he laid his eyes upon Zero for a few seconds. He grabs Jackal and throws him to Overdrive, who punches him down to the ground before he lands. He tries punching him when he's on the ground, but Jackal dodges it and gets up with no trouble at all. Jody awakens due to all the noise. "Hmpf, you guys are pretty resistant." The Malicious noted. "Revenant, throw Summers to me. You guys can take care of these ones. Enjoy yourself beating them up, but don't kill them. Keep that in mind." Revenant throws Summers, but Jody catches him by jumping into the air. "I won't let you take my brother!" Then she runs away with him. "Looks like i'll have some fun for myself too." The Malicious proceeds to chase her.

Revenant runs to Blaze and kicks him in the gut. Blaze didn't expect that at all. But he retaliates fast, and gives her a few punches, ending with a kick. It doesn't seem to have any effect at all. "Hey honey, melt me with that burning passion of yours." That really ticks Blaze off. He creates a huge fireball, and fires it at Revenant at close range. It doesn't set her on fire, but it seems to have had some effect. "More, more!" She says. She runs up to Blaze and hits him over and over again. She's too fast for Blaze to react. Lexer rams her in the back, Blaze quickly takes some distance, and she falls to the ground. "Why you!" She stands up fast, and punches Lexer. "Take that brat! You shouldn't hurt a lady." While she says that, Blaze charges up another fireball. This one is much bigger, because he had more time to concentrate. Blaze shoots it when Revenant turns around. It hits her. Lexer runs aside and Revenant flies backward to the ground. But she stands up again. "So it's 2 on one? Hah, that's still nothing for me." She runs up to Blaze and they fight again. Blaze can this time block and dodge some of her moves. Lexer runs up from the back and helps Blaze with his fight.

Meanwhile i've finally gathered enough power to move around. I've regained about 1/4th of my stamina, and some of my power. Solar and Chao are fighting with Zero. Solar fights on close range, with his windmill shuriken. Chao isn't too strong, so he only attacks Zero when he's about to hit Solar. Solar doesn't get hit too often because of Chao. Regulus and Overdrive are fighting Jackal. None of them seem to hit hit each other often. That Jackal guy was much tougher than I thought. But it seems that the matches are about even now. I decide to run after The Malicious and Jody. I'm not able to do much, but I might be able to help somehow.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character**

Name: **Zero Zaca**  
Age: 25  
Gamefaqs member name: **Zacazaca520 (gs)**  
Color: Dark-red and black  
Spike style: Shiny black, and pointing diagonally downwards  
Others: Uses a wooden katana, dark red sneakers  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 11 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 8  
Role: One of the minions of The Malicious  
Personality: A samurai hedgehog with a big ego and a lot of honor. He often searches for new challenges, but sometimes the challenges come it him. He's really annoyed if it's not a one on one battle, and he'll insult the opponents for cowards then. He seems a bit like a fool then, but it distracts the opponents he can pull off some deadly stuff. He doesn't use a real sword because it's quite heavy, and because his boss, The Malicious, often doesn't want him to kill anyone. If he has to kill someone he's good enough to do so without a blade.  
Backround: Still a secret  
Special power: Wind manipulation (Wind Blade Shoots blades of wind with anything that resembles a sword.)

**Status growth:  
Power: 7/10  
Battle speed: 9/10  
Endurance: 8/10  
Melee fighting: 9/10  
Strategy: 8/10  
Running speed: 5/10****  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 - Survival of the fittest**

Hero runs after the Malicious to help Jody and Summers, while the other guys are fighting. After mere seconds he's too far away to see. A sudden burst of strength? Probably. Regulus and Overdrive are in very good condition, and they've hit Jackal a few times. But lately, Jackal has been avoiding all their moves. Not only that, Jackal is smiling. Looking down on them. After several more minutes he starts attacking in between. First soft hits, then he slowly puts more power in them. Regulus and Overdrive back off a bit. Jackal starts mocking them. "What's the matter? Can't hit Jackal?" As usual, he starts laughing like a maniac. "Regulus, I got a plan." Overdrive whispers to him. "Hahaha, plan all you want. Here, Jackal will sit down. If you're ready, then Jackal will come at you." This does give Regulus and Overdrive a bit of an advantage.

A few minutes earlier... "Call your pet off, you coward!" Zero yells. He's agitated by Chao, who disturbs his rythm. "That's not gonna happen. This is a fight i'm not willing to lose. A battlefield isn't about fair fighting." Solar says. Zero shoots away a couple of wind blades, but all of them miss. Solar is too fast. On top of that, he's very hard to see, since it's dark. He gets a few hits in, and backs off. Zero makes them seem like nothing, but Solar is sure that they were good hits. Chao then attacks to disturb Zero's rythm again, but he sees it coming this time, and slashes Chao with his wooden sword. Chao gets hit 30 feet away, and is knocked out. "There, now it's a fair fight." Solar is worried about Chao, but he can't afford to go to him right now. Zero has been weakened quite a lot already. Much more than Solar. Even so, he was much stronger to begin with. They continue to fight on equal level.

Blaze and Revenant just keep throwing hard punches at each other. Revenant doesn't even concentrate on Lexer anymore, because she can easily take care of him when Blaze is down. That's what she thinks. Lexer hits do annoy her a lot, but every time she turns around to beat him up she gets hit from behind by a fireball before landing a hit. Seems like she's stuck, even with her superb fighting abilities and endurance. But... she can endure. So she doesn't care about the fireball for a moment, and just turns around. Instead of beating Lexer up, she grabs him at his legs and hits Blaze by swinging him. Blaze falls to the ground. "Heh, you're going down hothead." she says. Lexer tries to hit Revenant, but he can't do anything. "Let me go, you ugly freak!" Revenant kicks him in the stomach, and then throws him to Blaze. Blaze, who just stood up, catches him. Revenant runs to them and punches Blaze so that Lexer and Blaze both fall to the ground. It doesn't seem good for them. Revenant is starting to wear down a bit though. They just... have to keep fighting.

"We're done planning. Let's get it on, clown." Regulus says confident. "Hmm? That was short? As you wish, Jackal come at you." Jackal runs to them. Regulus tries to attack his face, but of course Jackal dodges it. But at the same time Overdrive grabs his legs. "Now you got nowhere to go." Overdrive says. "Oh yeah!" Jackal responds. He tries to escape, but Regulus is already using him as a punching bag. It doesn't work too long. Jackal lets himself fall, and proceeds to fight on the ground, while lying down. He gets his legs free in no time. Regulus and Overdrive yet again can't hit him, due to his continuous unpredictable rolling. They try grabbing him too, but that doesn't work anymore. Jackal laughs again. "Hehehehe, you almost got Jackal. But you can't ever beat him." Jackal now makes a break-dance like movement, going in circles and swinging his legs. Then he uses his arms to jump, and then continue in his normal fighting stance. Yet again, the fight doesn't seem to be near it's end anytime soon.

Zero makes a fatal mistake in his battle. He lost sight of his opponent. Solar throws his shuriken from Zero's back, wounds him, and runs fast enough to catch his shuriken. Zero shoots a wind blade to the place the shuriken is heading. He's sure that Solar wants to catch it. One second later... "Ugh... damn it!" Solar got hit. Now they're both wounded. They slowly walk to each other...

Revenant is getting exhausted, but she's not the only one. Blaze is near his limit too. Lexer still has plenty of energy. He didn't get hit too often. Even so, Revenant is still a dangerous opponent. Lexer now fights 1 on 1 with Revenant, while Blaze is recovering. They just barely started, but...

A sudden hard wind blows nearly blows them away. The following explosion is HUGE, and blasts them all away. It came from the direction where Hero, Summers, Jody and The Malicious are. What had happened? Are they alive?

**End of chapter**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 - Consumed by darkness**

I continued my chase. After a few minutes, I see something flash right next to me. It's not Sonics or Shadows flash when they run. This one was white, and much faster. I only saw it for a slight amount of a second. The Malicious is right in front of me now. I'm about to catch up. Jody isn't too far ahead of him either. Suddenly, The Malicious trips. What the? He trips? Now is my chance. I manage to close the gap between me and Malicious, and jump on his back to keep him down. Then he lifts me using a shield. I can't move. "Heh, impressive you are. But I have no time to play." He throws me away, and runs forward. But he's bumps into something, and falls on his back. "Ah, it's that wire girl." He says. I'm right behind him again. Wire girl? I see the wires in front of us. I only need to slow The Malicious down, so I try to grab him. But he uses his shield to blast me away. I will be knocked out once I hit the ground, but... Someone catches me. It's that girl, Seria? How did she... Oh, that's right. She suddenly disappeared. "You okay, Hero?" she ask. "Not really, I can barely stand." I respond. The Malicious looks viciously at her.

Malicious: "So you're the one that was ordered by the government to keep an eye on Summers. So you finally decided to show up."

Seria: "You won't get Summers. He's too dangerous to let him fall into your hands."

Me: "We'll stop you here for once and for all."

Malicious: "Hah, you! Don't make me laugh kid. You're exhausted, you won't be able to do anything. You wouldn't even be able to scratch me if you weren't."

I rush at him. He puts up his energy shield again. I don't know why... but I'm very confident I can penetrate it. I feel like i'm stronger than ever. My fist hits the shield, and shatters it. But... where's The Malicious. I look behind me, and there he was. He was ready to break Seria's neck. She simply teleports out of it, to the other side of her wire wall. So... she can teleport. So that's why I never noticed her. "I'm amazed you broke my energy shield, boy. But I have no time." He creates a massive energy shield, then lets it explode. The wire wall gets shattered, and I and Seria have to get out of the way. Seria teleports herself away, while I get blasted back again. I get up, very slowly. My whole body hurts, but I can still move. As long as I can move, I can ignore the pain. The Malicious was already out of sight, but I know in which direction he was heading. I chase him again.

After another 10 minutes there's a gigantic wall. It seems to be a wall that surrounds some kind of city. Seria and Jody are fighting The Malicious as I get closer. Just what I thought, Seria teleported to Jody and Summers. Their fighting skills are awesome, although they don't have a lot of power. Especially Jody is very good when it comes to technique. But none of them can penetrate The Malicious 's energy shields. I'm finally close enough, and then hit The Malicious from his back, where he is unshielded for the moment. He staggers, jumps against the wall, and makes a hole in it so he hangs. "You're still not out? Persistent, aren't you? He looks at Summers, then puts up an energy shield around him. This one took him about a minute to create. We can't reach The Malicious anyway, I think.

Jody: "What are you doing to my brother!"

Malicious: "I'm only making sure he won't destroy us all."

Jody: "He's not evil! He won't destroy us!"

Malicious: "It's only a matter of minutes. None of you can possibly stop it."

Seria teleports herself above The Malicious, and hits him down to the ground. The Malicious quickly creates a powerful shield around himself too. There is nothing for him to worry about. He sits on the ground and waits. For several minutes we try breaking either one of the barriers, but nothing helps.

We stop once Summers starts floating in the air. He doesn't have his eyes open, leading me to believe that he's still uncunscious. "Brother?" Jody asks to him. He doesn't respond. Seria blames The Malicious. "What's happening? Malicious, you did this!" The Malicious sighs... "This was in him all along. Just wait, and be amazed by his awakening." I wanted to say something, but Summers opens his eyes. They're glowing white now, his color changes a bit and he gets thick, shiny white lines on this fur. Then suddenly, an explosion happens in the shield. "Just as I thought, my energy shield are" The energy shield around Summers shatters, and a very powerful wind blows us far away. The wind is even strong enough to shatter The Malicious's own barrier, and blow him away too. Then there's a very powerful explosion... that's all I can remember before i'm... knocked out.

I finally awake... but I can't open my eyes. I can't even move. It must 've been hours since... that happened. I hear some footsteps closing in on me. "It's you? How did this happen? I'll... take care of you." A female voice? I pass out, yet again...

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character**

Name: **Seria Idon**  
Age: 23  
Gamefaqs member name: **Cloud789**  
Color: Pink, with some red and blue  
Spike style: Point up, then down, up, then down, like a zigzag  
Others: A dress, much like the one Amy wears, but is colored dark blue. She has bangles and bracelets on her wrists and ankles that jingle.  
Side: Good  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 14 years before she gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 8  
Role: Adult female hedgehog that does various tasks for the government, but she also tries to stick to the good guys group.  
Personality: She used to be a boy, so she isn't attracted to males. She's quite attractive for a female hedgehog, so she doesn't like all those guys that regularly try to hit on her. She doesn't joke around a lot and gets straight to the point. She learns fast, and is pretty smart. She sticks as much as she can to Hero's group because she can be herself there, without being annoyed. She still has a few boy habits though.  
Backround: A boy before she got transfered to the Hedgehog Mania world. She was only 9 back then. She was raised in a city, and it wasn't much later that her skills were noticed by a hedgehog that worked for the government. There she was trained for many years, and the hedgehog that found her became her mentor. About 3 years ago, she went on a secret assignment with her mentor, who achieved a legendary status by this time. They failed the mission, and her mentor didn't make it. That mission was to check out Summers. He unleashed his evil powers a bit, and caused an explosion that fatally wounded her mentor. When she came back, she was assigned to keep an eye on Summers, and interfere when something goes wrong. If it fails and she survives, then she has to report it to the government.  
Special power: Telepathic and telekinetic abilties. She's well trained in creating wires with them to capture targets with them, and she can also teleport. She can use those abilities also pretty good in combat.

**Status growth:  
Power: 6/10  
Battle speed: 8/10  
Endurance: 7/10  
Melee fighting: 8/10  
Strategy: 8/10  
Running speed: 9/10**

Name: **Evil Summers**  
Age: 21  
Gamefaqs member name: **UltimateSummers**  
Color: Black head, orange fur, and several white stripes  
Spike style: Some of the ones near the front stick up, and the rest are like Sonics  
Others: Yellow pants, black-brown mountain shoes  
Side: Evil  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 17 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 11  
Role: A very powerful evil guy  
Personality: He has no personality. He just wants to destroy whatever he sees.  
Backround: He's the same person as Summers the Hedgehog, so he also has the same backround.  
Special power: Uses dark energy in every kind of imaginable way


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 - Troublesome ladies**

I wake up. I'm... lying in something soft. I open my eyes, and get up fast. I was... in a bed? I look around. It seems i'm in a normal house. The rooms is mostly white, and there are 2 doors. A brown and a blue one. I go through the blue door. It appears to be another bedroom. There's are 2 people sleeping in 2 beds. One of them is Jody, the other one is Seria. So they're here too. I close the door, and go through the brown door. A pink hedgehog is sitting on a couch. It's Amy. Did she... save me? She hears something and turns her head to me.

Amy: "So you're finally awake. You were messed up bad when I found you some days ago."

Me: "You... you have a house?"

Amy: "Yeah, of course. It's easy enough to earn money for a cute pretty girl like me."

Me: "... ... ..."

Amy: "You were the one that took my money, aren't you?"

Me: "I tried giving it back. But you refused."

Amy: "I did?"

Me: "I can pay you back."

Amy: "I have enough money. I don't need more for quite a while."

Me: "If you really don't want it..."

Amy: "You should get some rest. You still don't look so good."

Me: "Yeah, guess I should."

I wanted to go through the door. But she still had something to say to me. "By the way. What's your name? I'm Amy Rose." Right, she didn't know yet. "I'm Hero. Hero Red." And with that, I return to bed.

The next day, when I'm fully rested, I go to the living room again. No one there? I check the other bedroom. Neither Jody nor Seria are there. I eat and drink something, before I check out where I am. Finally I go outside. I'm in some sort of city. Lots of people are walking around. I ask around a bit, and it appears this city is named Karodo. Quite a lively city, I must say. I shouldn't go too far from Amy's house, I might get lost.

After a few hours I see a poster on a big building. Looks a bit like the Life Dome, only a lot smaller. It seems they have their own fights too, though the tournament isn't nearly as big as the one that will be held in the Life Dome. I decide to sign up. If I can't win this one, I might as well even forget winning in the Evolutia tournament. This one will be held in a few days. It's needed to learn my own strength too, because I still need to know where the rest of my friends are.

When it gets dark I decide to return to Amy's house. I'm assuming someone should be there by now. I can't get in without any keys either. I knock on the door... and Jody opens it. I go inside. Amy and Seria are sitting on the couch, there seems to be enough space for one more person. Unfortunately that won't be me. It's Jody's spot. Bags filled with clothes are in the corner. They went shopping? I go sit on the floor.

Jody: "So you're finally here."

Amy: "Why did you leave the house?"

Me: "I didn't know where I was. None of you were here either. I had to get some information one way or another."

Jody: "Do you know what happened to my brother?"

Me: "No, I was knocked out during the blast."

Seria: "Is he really evil now?"

Me: "Maybe not."

Jody: "He is. It's just as it was predicted. He turned evil when things were looking desperate for us."

Me: "I'm sure we'll be able to turn him good somehow. I'll kick his ass if needed."

Jody: "You need to train if you want to kick his ass. I can even beat you as you are now."

Me: "Yeah, right."

Jody: "I challenge you, Hero Red!"

Amy: "What? You can't be planning on fighting him!"

Jody: "He nearly beat up my brother! I blame him for my brother turning evil!"

Me: "Your brother forced me to fight him. Get over it. I'll get him back."

Jody: "If you beat me in a fight, i'll believe you."

Me: "We'll fight at the Karodo tournament. If you make it, that is."

Jody: "Deal!"

Normally I don't hit girls. But if she proves herself as a worthy fighter, I won't hold back. The next day she signs up. She doesn't even train, that's how confident she is. I'm confident too, but that's no reason for me not to train.

**End of chapter**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 - Struggle to the top**

I was challenged... by a girl! Today is the big day. Will I win the tournament? Will I be defeated by some random opponent? Will I get my ass kicked by a cute girl? I trained very hard, all I can do is do my best. I see Seria tries to sneak away, just as I am about to leave my room. I thought she was with Amy and Jody who were already at the dome? "Weren't you going to the tournament?" I ask. She's startled, because she didn't notice me.

Seria: "I ah... I still have some business to take care off?"

Me: "Shouldn't you support Jody? Something really bad happened to her brother."

Seria: "I'm not her friend, so it's not my job. Summers was my job, and now I gotta report exactly what happened."

Me: "To the government? Hah, governments won't do anything about it until it's too late."

Seria: "... ... ... I'm only doing my job."

Me: "Were you really a guy in another world? Or did you just make that up?"

Seria: "I told you the truth. I used to be a guy. I've been here for 14 years already."

Me: "Hmmm... just go report to the government. It's your job, I won't stop you. I gotta tell you that I could really use your help though."

Seria: "I'll ask if I should aid you after I've delivered my report. You're one of the few people that The Malicious refused to kill. That might be an advantage."

She leaves. I hadn't eaten anything, and grab a bite before I leave. I can't help but feeling a bit nervous. I don't know how powerful I am compared to others in this world.

When I arrive at the preparation room in the arena, Jody is busy winning her first fight. I'm the last one to fight, and there are still 5 fights before it's my turn. Jody's opponent is very big, about 5 feet tall. And he's very strong, and pretty fast too. But Jody is totally owning him with her superior speed and fighting technique. No, it's not just superior. Her skills are simply awesome. I have no better words for it. She moves elegant like a dancer, using her weight perfectly. It's so precise that she manages to kick the opponent into the air, jumps, and kicks him up a few times before placing a kick so that she ends up above the opponent. Then she kicks him down, and the big guy is knocked out.

Jody walks out of the arena, into the preparation room. "So what do you think of Sky Reaper? The ultimate airborne fighting style?" She's very confident. Of course she is! Her style is perfect in every way. But... I still stand a chance. "Very Impressive." She's about to walk away. "But... If that's all you won't win from me." She stops for several seconds. "I'm going to join Amy in the audience for a while. Don't disappoint me and lose before we get to fight each other." Hmmm... seems she has some faith in me. Several fights later, it's finally my turn. I wasn't impressed by any of them, except for the fight of that pink male hedgehog. Or was he purple? I wouldn't know. Even if he got a wimpy color, he most certainly has skills. People call him Bounty Hunter... so that's probably what he is. He most certainly has that look.

I walk into the arena. The light is pretty bright. So that's what it feels like to stand on the stage. My opponent also walks in. He's a pretty big and muscled hedgehog, like most fighters here. The bell goes, and the fight starts. He rushes immediately at me. He's a slow one alright. Nearly feels like watching it in slow-motion. Then he throws a straight punch, like the muscled buffoon that he is. I could dodge it, but... I take it like a man! It doesn't floor me, nor does it hurt much. What the? So little training and I became this strong already? Or... maybe he's just all looks and is actually a wimp. He's amazed that I don't have anything. I decide he doesn't even deserve the honor to hit me anymore. He throws another punch, I step to him, dodge it by ducking, and give him and uppercut. He flies about 10 feet into the air. Wow, I really am strong! Before he lands I kick him and he flies against the wall. He's knocked out. I raise my arm the crowd goes wild. Then I walk out of the arena, into the preparation room. Jody is there again.

Jody: "You're... no normal hedgehog, are you? Not like the other ones from another world. You're not even much like my brother. What are you anyway?"

Me: "Beats me. I have no idea. Just admit it, I kick ass."

Jody: "Yes you do, but certainly not mine. If that's all you can do you won't beat me."

Me: "Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. I'll watch the fights with Amy. It's your turn soon. Good luck!"

I walk away. I don't know where Amy exactly is in the audience... but i'll find her. And... Jody was mocking me! After I mocked her! She's a toughie alright, in both character and skills. It takes me about 10 minutes to find Amy. I'm just in time for Jody's next fight. "Is Jody still mad at you?" Amy asks. "Not really. But I need to prove i'm better than her if I want her to calm down." The bell goes, and Jody fights again. She shows no mercy to the opponent, just as her first fight. And her Air Reaper style owned the opponent again. It's over within 30 seconds. It seems to have a small weakness though. Ha, I already know exactly how i'm going to counter it. Hopefully i'm able to pull it off. It requires immense precision. "Aha!" I was thinking out loud. "What?" Amy asks. "Uh... nothing. Something just crossed my mind. Nothing special."

I go back to the preparation room. Jody doesn't cross my path this time. I must've missed her. Wait, I didn't. She's standing at the entrance, talking to that pink hedgehog! I decide to check out what's going on.

Bounty hunter: "That brother of yours is mine!"

Jody: "If you even touch him, you're dead!"

Bounty hunter: "Hmpf, I've got a fight now. I'll see you in the next round, cutie."

Jody: "Bastard!"

The bounty hunter walks into the arena. Jody turns around, and sees me. "I can't believe how many people are lurking on my brother. And he even has the nerve to call me a cutie? Who the hell does he think he is! Shadnik?" Obviously, she doesn't like him. So... "His name is Shadnik?" I ask. "Bass Shadnik, a well known bounty hunter. Now that my brother has a bounty on his head, he's chasing him. I have to make sure he won't get him, by beating him in the next round." She walks away, and returns to Amy. Bass beats his opponent very easily. He doesn't show any mercy, and goes on even after the opponent is KO 'd. Hopefully Jody can beat that guy. After a few fights it's my turn again. I beat my opponent easily too. In this tournament, there are 3 fighters that shine. Jody shines most. She's a pretty hedgehog girl with supreme fighting skills. Then there's Bass. His fights a brutal, no one likes what he does to his opponents. His badass attitude makes him shine. Then there's me... the silent red hedgehog that doesn't hold back, no matter who the opponent is.

After a while, Jody has to fight again. It's the last fight she has to do today. It's against Bass. While she walks past me... "Good luck Jody. Kick his ass!" She just walks on without saying anything. A few seconds later Bass comes by. "Kick my ass you said? Huh, i'll beat you to a pulp after i'm done with the girl." Arrogant attitude he got. But just an arrogant attitude ain't enough to scare me. I'm sure Jody will beat him, one way or another... I hope...

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New character**

Name: **Bass Shadnik**  
Age: 23  
Gamefaqs member name: **Shadnik**  
Color: Pink (looks close to purple)  
Spike style: Short like old school Sonic  
Others: Utility vest, broad battle scarred sword and shield.  
Side: Neutral  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 6 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 13  
Role: Bounty hunter that occasionally makes some trouble for Hero's group  
Personality: He fought a lot, and has seen a lot of death ever since he came into the Hedgehog Mania world. So he has a merciless and very arrogant attitude. He jokes around about, and against his enemies and bounties too.  
Backround: Just when he was transfered into the Hedgehog Mania world, he landed in a war between 2 cities. So he had nowhere to go, but to fight. Both sides attacked him. In the end... both of those cities were annihilated, but Bass managed to get away before they were destroyed. Right after that, he decided to become a bounty hunter, and became a bounty himself too. Due to this, he encountered many bounty hunters that wouldn't stop fighting until death. He used to be a kind young man... but all those battles have scarred him for life.  
Special power: Compression and control of sand. Most of the time he makes pillars out of it to crush his opponents.

**Status growth:  
Power: 10/10  
Battle speed: 7/10  
Endurance: 6/10  
Melee fighting: 10/10  
Strategy: 7/10  
Running speed: 6/10**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 - For great justice!**

Jody's next fight just started. There's only 1 fight between her and Bass's fight, before it's my turn. So I wait in the preparation room and watch. Jody is angry at Bass, who's her opponent. She moves much faster than before, and rushes immediately at him. Bass simply blocks her first punch, with his overwhelming power. Jody then quickly runs around him, grabs him by the neck and throws him away. Bass easily recovers himself in the air, but before he gets down Jody is already there and kicks him in his stomach. "Come on, girl! Is that all you got?" Before he can land she launches a rain of punches and keeps him in the air. As a finisher she charges her punch up a bit, and hits him into the wall. Bass coughs up some blood, but he doesn't have any serious damage. Before Jody can run away Bass grabs her at her neck. "Hmpf, you know you can't win now. Don't you?" Jody kicks his arm repeatedly, but that does not help. He puts her against the wall, and gets ready to punch her. Right before he hits her she manages to slip away. She then runs away for some distance, recovering her breathing tempo. She looks only a second away from him, I don't know why. But Bass takes advantage of it, rushes her, and gives her a full powered punch. She flies backward and some blood leaves her face. Man, that's a really hard punch! Things don't exactly look good for Jody now. She struggles to stand up. Before she's on her legs again, Bass grabs her throat again. He pinching a lot harder now. Is he trying to kill her! I'm getting ready to rush in at any time! She kicks him in his face, then he lets her go. She falls down on her knees, coughing a lot. While she's doing that, Bass kicks her really hard in the face. While she's hit a a long distance backwards, quite some blood is flying around the arena.

Jody... doesn't move anymore. The bell goes, and I run into the arena to check up on her. Bass is preparing to attack her yet again! Man, that bastard really needs a lesson. I punch him right in the face, and he falls over right before he attacks Jody. "This fight is over!" Bass wipes away the blood he has on his face. "Huh, so you're saving your friend? The loser doesn't deserve to live." What the hell! "That's wrong! You're not supposed to kill someone in a tournament!" He slowly stands up, and gives me a mean look in the eyes. "Heh, if you think you're right. Defeat me in the finals. I'll be waiting for you." He walks away. That bastard! He beat Jody this easily... I wasn't even sure I was going to beat her? How... am I going to beat him?

I check up on Jody. She's still breathing. Her face bleeds quite a lot, but she'll be okay within a few days. Phew, lucky her! I was sure that punch nearly killed her. I pick her up and run into the preparation room. Amy just arrives there. "Hero!" She runs up to us. "Jody... won't die... right!" She asks in panic. "Don't worry, she'll be fine in a few days." I hand Jody over to Amy. "Just let her rest at your house for now, and take care of her wounds." I turn around to watch the next fight in the arena. "But what about you? Don't I need to support you?" She's worried about me? "Don't worry. I'll be sure to win this tournament." Then I hear her run away. After a couple of seconds... "Hey, Hero!" I turn around. Regulus? How did he get here?

Regulus: "Man, Jody got beat up bad. If you win this fight and the next one you'll fight Bass, right?"

Me: "Yeah. I'll beat him somehow. Are you the only one here?"

Regulus: "Nah, Overdrive is somewhere in the city."

Me: "That's good to know. Where's the others?"

Regulus: "Lexer is in Evolutia right now. I don't know where Solar and Blaze are. They disappeared after the explosion. There's no sign of Jackal or Revenant either. What happened to that Seria girl anyway. I know that Summers became evil already."

Me: "Seria should be coming soon. She'll help me fight. At least, that's what I hope. How did you know Summers got evil?"

Regulus: "He destroyed a village to the south of this place. Where's The Malicious?"

Me: "I wouldn't know. He may be dead. He took a near direct hit from Summers explosion."

Regulus: "Did you know there's a big hole in the ground where you fought?"

Me: "So that's what the explosion caused? Oh man... am I glad to be alive!"

The bell rings. The current fight is over. My fight comes now. "Good luck with your fight." Of course, I easily win this fight. After that we leave the dome, and prepare to go to Amy's house. I have to fight the semi-finals and finals tomorrow. Overdrive waits at the entrance of the dome. "Hey there, Hero. Nice fights you had." How would he know? Wasn't he in the city? "Weren't you in the city?" Regulus asks. "There's a thing called radio, you know." They have radio's here? I didn't even know! But I gotta hurry right now. "Hey Overdrive, i'd love to stay here and talk about what happened, but we gotta go to Amy's house now. We're in a rush." He comes along, of course.

Once arrive, we check how Jody's doing first. She's okay. Her face has a few bandages. But she doesn't have any staying injuries. The slight scars will go away within a few weeks. Then we all go to the living room.

Amy: "Hey, you're the one that assaulted me some time ago!"

Regulus: "I wasn't! I only touched your shoulder to get your attention!"

Amy: "Yeah, right. I know the likes of y"

Me: "Amy, stop it. He really was only trying to get your attention. I know him well."

Amy: "Why did he want my attention anyway? Trying to pick up a cute girl like me! Of course you did!"

Regulus: "Ah... not really. But I do admire you a bit."

Amy: "Really! I should start my own fan club."

Me: "You have plenty of fan clubs where we come from. You and Sonic, and many of your other friends are really well known there."

Amy: "Yay, I got fan clubs! People adore me!

Overdrive: "... ... ... They like Knuckles more than you."

Amy: "What! No way!"

We explain the whole situation to her, and share the information we have. It appears that Lexer has something important for me and wants me to get over as soon as possible, but I still have some unfinished business here.

One day passes, and I win my next fight in the morning. It was harder then most, but I didn't get hit once. That night, i'm standing face to face with Bass in the arena. He beat Jody, so if I beat him... then she won't blame me for her brother turning evil. At least I think she won't.

The final fight starts. He gets in a fighting position, but he doesn't move. He's taking it serious, because that's not what he did when fighting Jody. I slowly approach him. Even when i'm in hitting distance, he doesn't do anything. He's expecting me to dodge his hits. Heh, i'll surprise him. I lower my fighting stance. He assumes I can't dodge from this stance, and throws a hard punch. It's true, I can't dodge it completely, but... his punch touches my face and as soon as it does I use the force his punch sends through my body, and send it back right at him. He flies a big distance backward, just barely touching the wall. Oh man... that really hurt. I got a lot of damage because of that one single punch. I have a bit of blood on my face. But he has more damage! The fight continues on for a while. I get hit a lot, and he too. Occasionally I use his weightt against himself. There's no way for him to dodge so soon after attacking. So he just hopes he overpowers me. It's some sort of Lallapallooza. A hitting match. Neither one of us is backing down. That is...

Until the roof starts crumbling. We stop our fighting and look up. Someone comes crashing down right through the roof, landing right between me and Bass. I see that Bass is send flying towards the wall with some kind of force. I can't see what, there's smoke everywhere.

Suddenly I feel a punch in my gut. Damn... I don't have much strength left right now. I feel I get lifted into the air... just before I faint.

**End of chapter**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 - The 2nd stage**

Regulus and Overdrive run into the arena. The smoke slowly disappears. After a few seconds they realize it's the Malicious, and he has Hero on his shoulder! He pushes both Regulus and Overdrive away with a an energy shield, then he makes a big one beneath him and he proceeds to stand on it. He creates an energy shield around him, and lets the one beneath him explode, causing it to shoot him up to the roof. He looks down before he runs away. Both Regulus and Overdrive are dazed, but unharmed by the explosion. The bounty hunter Bass was lucky. The explosion simply didn't get to him. The Malicious probably didn't want to blow up the arena. But why? He doesn't care about who gets killed normally. The audience is still okay. Regulus and Overdrive run outside, to chase The Malicious. But he's already gone. After that they both go to Amy, who didn't went to the finals, and explain what happened. Then they take off to Evolutia. Maybe Lexer can help them.

Meanwhile The Malicious is already out of town, heading towards his base. He's running hard. As hard as he can at least. A blue flash passes him. The Malicious just keeps on running. After a few seconds Sonic is running next to him. He looks to his side now.

Malicious: "What do you want?"

Sonic: "What are you doing with my friend?"

Malicious: "Your friend, you say?"

Sonic: "Not really. But I gave him a ride once."

Malicious: "Why do you care about this guy anyway?"

Sonic: "Because i'm a hero. I can see that you're a bad guy just by looking at you."

Malicious: "Wow, i'm impressed by your guess. Here, let me reward you."

He puts up an energy shield around Sonic. Sonic can't move forward now, while The Malicious keeps on running."Hah, loser! Come back when you can harm me." Sonic suddenly starts running very fast. So fast, that he breaks out of the shield. He's gains up in no time with The Malicious, and he homing attacks him. The Malicious quickly puts up a shield, but Sonics homing attack breaks the shield, and Malicious falls to the ground and drops Hero. "You... you broke my shield?" The Malicious is quite amazed by that strength. "Huh, it was nothing! Come on, let's fight it out!" The Malicious stands up, and starts fighting Sonic. Though Sonic breaks his shields, he can't get through them. And The Malicious often lets them explode too. Their fight drags on for hours, and then... a black flash appears, and stops. The Malicious and Sonic are both exhausted now, and stop their fight to look at... Shadow. Shadow sees Hero on the ground, and he grabs him. "Sonic! If you wish to save him you'll fight me at the tournament. And his friend that hit me too." Shadow then quickly disappears in a flash as fast as he appeared. The Malicious takes his chance, and hits Sonic with an exploding shield. Sonic is knocked out by it. Then The Malicious runs into the direction that Shadow went, leaving Sonic alive. Apparently, getting Hero is more important than killing Sonic.

After a while, he catches up with Shadow. It's not because he's faster, because he's much slower than him. But because Shadow is fighting with Revenant, Jackal and Zero. Hero is lying on the ground. Shadow is holding his own very well against them. They can't hit him, but he can't attack them back either. The Malicious interrupts their fight, and hits Shadow with an exploding energy shield. He picks up Hero and orders his minions to keep Shadow busy for now.

His mission was to capture Hero. It was supposed to be an easy mission. But those blue and black-red hedgehogs caused a lot of trouble. Luckily he gets to the base without any further interruptions.

A few days later Regulus and Overdrive find Lexer in Evolutia. He wasn't hard to find at all. He has a big house that sells... gadgets. He earns tons of money with it. They step into the shop, and Lexer is standing at the counter. "Hey guys, you the others yet?"

Regulus: "We found Hero and Jody, but ah... they couldn't come."

Lexer: "Why not?"

Overdrive: "Malicious abducted Hero. And Summers his sister got beat up. She's recovering in Karodo."

Lexer: "What about Solar and Blade?"

Overdrive: "Nope, nothing on them. I wonder where they could've gone to?"

Lexer: "Don't worry about it! I've nearly finished an energy reader!

Regulus: "What does it do?"

Lexer: "Duh, it reads energies of course! Energies from those from another world, to be exactly."

Regulus: "Nice going, kid."

Lexer: "I'm older than you!"

Overdrive: "Hey foxhog, how did you get a house this big anyway?"

Lexer: "You'd be amazed how many rich hedgehogs are willing to pay for some simple inventions."

Regulus: "Man... when it was just Overdrive, Hero and me we could barely get money. And then I see Amy and you earning it so easily."

Overdrive: "Good times."

Regulus: "Shut up, you idiot. How can it be good while we were suffering!

They talk and argue a bit more, and then Lexer proceeds to work on the energy reader. The next day they leave the city. They follow the path where most readings are. There's 4 in the west, so that's where they go.

**End of chapter**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 - Hidden power**

Oh man, I got a headache. I can hardly open my eyes, i'll just... "So, are you sure that he can stop Summers?" That's... Solars voice! I try to open my eyes... but they just won't open. "Yes, I am sure. This guy can hold back the true power of Summers." The Malicious! I finally open my eyes. Everything is dark. I can't see anything. I can't move either. "What if you are only using us?" Blaze says. So Blaze too...

Malicious: "Of course I am only using you. But the two of you don't have a choice, if you want this world to exist much longer."

Blaze: "But once Summers is normal, we can take him, right?"

Malicious: "We've already made the deal. I can assure you that Summers will stay in safety, and that you can take him with you."

Solar: "What's Hero supposed to do anyway? Is he more powerful than Summers?"

Malicious: "Heh, no. He's not nearly as powerful as Summers. He's still a weakling right now."

Blaze: "So he's able to immobilize the power of Summers?"

Malicious: "That's not it too. There isn't anything special about Hero, except for his strong will and great natural fighting capabilities."

Solar: "So... is he going to stop him wi"

Malicious: "You can stop guessing now. You will see what happens when we have Summers here. If you two do your job, then i'll do mine."

I hear a door close. Then some light comes from an opening door. It appear to be The Malicious. He turns on the lights, and looks at me. "So, you're finally awake now Hero. You must've heard your conversation between me... and your buddies." Yeah... are they on his side now? "Were they on your side all along?" The Malicious turns around. "They aren't even on my side right now. Don't worry about them. They're too stupid to betray you." Well... I hope he's telling the truth.

Me: "What do you want from me?"

Malicious: "As you heard from us. I need you to stop the insane strength of Summers."

Me: "That I heard. But... I'm not capable of doing that."

Malicious: "You are very capable. You see, you still have a special ability. You should know about it by now."

Me: "You mean... the extra strength boost I can get in critical situations."

Malicious: "You still don't know? I thought I knew yourself better than that. Tell me. Why have you been beating up stronger opponents than you? Why?"

Me: "I ah... I can read opponents like open books. But Summers destroyed a village in a single explosion, or so I heard. What good would this ability be?"

Malicious: "That would do a lot of good when you fight him. But you still haven't guessed your special ability? Let me tell you something. Every hedgehog that comes from another world has a unique, special ability. And yours can neutralize Summers. Think about it for now. You still have until tomorrow. If everything goes according to schedule, your friends your friends should have him here by then."

He leaves the room, and leaves me in the dark then. Man, he really asks a lot out of me. So... what would this hidden power be? Hmm... it must be visible, I think. Seria has telepathic powers, and The Malicious has his energy shields. And Summers has his energy attacks... Who else? Blaze has fire. I remember wind blades... yeah. Those were from that samurai hedgehog, Zero. I can't think of anything the others have... so these 5 people will have to do. And The Malicious wouldn't just give Summers away without a reason. I think that can mean only one thing. He wants to take over Summers power, not control Summers for his power.

I keep thinking the whole time. But... I just can't think of anything special I can do. I can basically already guess what the abilities are of the others... but still not mine. A wall is smashed. Daylight comes from it. So it's already morning. Regulus, Overdrive and Lexer walk through it. "Hey guys! Free me, now!" They can barely see me, but they do see me. "Hero, you okay?" Lexer asks. "I'm fine. But The Malicious was planning to let me fight Summers." They all have a surprised look on their face. "He's totally crazy, man! He just captures you to get you slaughtered!" Regulus says. They free me and we go out of the building. I notice it's nowhere near any population. "The Malicious thinks I can neutralize Summers."

Overdrive: "What a fool!"

Me: "I'm not so sure about that. He's just a big risk taker. Anyway, we gotta find Solar and Blaze."

Lexer: "So you know where they are?"

Me: "I think so. They were going to lure Summers to this building. So if we find Summers, we find them too."

We hear something behind us. It's coming from out of the building. We all turn around, and see 3 hedgehogs. Jackal, Revenant and Zero. I can't use this kind of trouble now... "You think, you can, escape, from, the claw, of Jackal?" Always doing something weird, that Jackal... At least he's not laughing right now.

**End of chapter**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 - Nemesis**

Revanant runs straight at me, and throws a straight punch. I dodge it, and jump backward. Immediately after that Overdrive and Regulus grab her, and Lexer grabs some gun from between his tails. He holds it against the struggling Revenant, and pulls the trigger. Revanant gets shocked and falls to the unconscious to the ground. So Lexer keeps junk between his tails? Oh well, it's good junk at least. "Hehe, if you 2 don't leave us alone, we'll do the same to you." Of course, there's no way they'd give in that easily. "What we do, Zero?" Jackal asks. "Boss should have Summers here soon enough. We'll hold them off until then." Jackal grabs a stone and throws it against Lexers gun. There's nothing wrong with the outside of the gun, but Lexer shakes it and it appears that the insides is scrambled. "Ah... damn!" Jackal runs at his target, Lexer, slipping past both Overdrive and Regulus with his speed. I can't get to Lexer in time either. A few inches before he reaches Lexer, he gets hit by a red hedgehog. He has the same color as me, and his spikes are in nearly the same way. Jackal is knocked out too. "Thank you, Hero!" Lexer says. "Yeah, don't mention it." Is what the red hedgehog says. Lexer takes a better look. "You're not Hero." Big eyes the red hedgehog gets all of a sudden. "What! I save your life and you don't even give me a thanks, you bratty little fox!" His way of talking seems quite familiar right now. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Thanks for saving me. I'm not a fox, you know. Who are you, by the way?" He looks at Lexer. "You're not Tails? I could swear you were, Tails is the only fox with 2 Tails." By now, Zero heads back into the building. They don't notice.

Lexer: "No, i'm not. So... who are you?"

Knuckles: "My name is Knuckles, and there is nothing I can't do."

Regulus: "You're Knuckles! But you... you don't look like him!

Overdrive: "Ah, he does. You've been around Hero so much, you didn't notice it when he did appear."

Knuckles: "Who's this Hero you're talking about?"

Me: "Hello there, dear brother."

He turns around. "What! But you can't be... my brother. Can you!" He's actually buying it? "Regulus: "Why didn't you say that Knuckles was your brother?" Regulus asks. "Yeah, yeah!" Overdrive says after that. Ah... they're... shouldn't they know by now I'm not his brother? "I'm not his brother. I was just joking, because he looks so much like me." Knuckles punches me. Not hard, but he did punch me. "Don't fool me again!" I may end up dead if I do, so... I probably shouldn't. Behind Knuckles I see someone falling very fast, shortly after Knuckles falls down to the floor. It was Zero. He jumped from the roof, to give Knuckles a hard blow in his back. Then he backs off for some distance because he was standing between all of us. "Heh, you fools. You should relax when your enemies are still around." He looks away, because he seems to see something far away. Regulus punches him while he's distracted. I look where he was looking, and I see 2 hedgehogs running. After a few seconds, I see who they are. Solar and Blaze. But... there's someone behind them too. He's taking his time chasing them. I can't see who it is. Suddenly... "Here he comes. Prepare yourself, Hero." I look to the top of the building, because that's where the voice came from. And just as I suspected, The Malicious is standing on it. After him saying that, it must be Summers. But I can't fight him yet. I tell Regulus to grab Knuckles, and say that he and Lexer should run away. Overdrive and I will do something else. We gotta get Solar and Blaze away from there. We all do what I said. Just when I started running, The Malicious jumps down and blocks my path. He doesn't say anything. He just smiles, and then steps out of the way. So he's thinking I will fight Summers? Nah, I won't. Maybe just a bit, to get Solar and Blaze away. In mere seconds we're running right next to Solar and Blaze. "Hey Hero, ready to fight?" Blaze asks. "No way! What the hell were you thinking!" A big airplane flies by. It's blue, it's... the Tornado? No, it's not. This ones much bigger. It shoots a missile at Summers, who doesn't move at all after being hit, like he's stopped in time. Summers gets picked up by the plane, and then we get picked up too.

Inside the plane it looks even bigger. I look at Summers. He looks kind of freaky, with those bright white lines. I notice that Regulus and Lexer are there too, together with Knuckles. Then, a light-brown hedgehog, with a bit of white fur on his face, and also two tails walks in. The tops of the tails are white. His spikes point forward. So... this is probably Tails. "Are you okay?" He asks. "Yeah, i'm fine."

Tails: "I'm Tails, pleased to meet you all."

Lexer: "Tails? Really!"

Tails: "Hey, you have 2 tails too! So you must be... another Tails!"

Lexer: "Yes, I am."

Me: "No, you're not. You're Lexer Adario, remember?"

Lexer: "I changed my name!"

Overdrive: "So... what did you do to Summers?"

Tails: "I used the power of a chaos emerald to stun him. I don't know how long he'll be stunned. A few days at most."

Overdrive: "And what's the minimum."

Tails: "He can wake up any moment."

Regulus: "You're crazy, you know that?"

Lexer: "No, he's not!"

Tails: "Your friend is right. I'm not crazy. I always have a backup plan."

He grabs a remote control from between his Tails. He presses on of the buttons on it, and some kind of energy field forms around Summers. "There, that should do it. Even if he wakes up, he won't be able to do anything." It's good that Knuckles and Tails are here... but how does Tails know about Summers? "Hey Tails. I've been wondering... how do you know about Summers?" In the meantime, Knuckles gets up. "What happened?" Tails proceeds to explain what happened to him, preventing me from getting my answer. Doesn't he want to say it... or is this simply like he always is? Either way, i'll ask it again later. Solar and Blaze have been awfully quiet. They're sitting on a bench. I join them.

Blaze: "Hey, Hero. We're sorry we helped The Malicious."

Me: "Don't worry about it. He's good in manipulating people."

Solar: "So what are we going to do now?"

Me: "Find a way to get Summers back to normal. But I don't think i'd be of much help. I'll leave this to Tails and Lexer. They're the smartest ones around here."

Solar and Blaze: "Okay..."

They're a bit down, it seems. But they'll get over it soon enough. "Hey Tails, come and take a look at this." A voice from the cockpit sounded. I didn't think that there was still someone else here. That voice is very familiar. I just can't remember who. I decide to go into the cockpit too. Tails doesn't complain about it. We both come in... it's Dr. Robotnik! "Hey, ah... isn't he your enemy?" Tails wants to say something, but Robotnik interrupts him. "How can I have my empire, when the whole world is destroyed?" He does have a point. "Okay, I get it." I go back to the others, without saying who it was. I said they should take a look themselves. Of course, the few who knew Dr. Robotnik from the games, came out with a very surprised look on their face.

After a few hours, we land in a city. I don't know this one, but it seems to be as big as Evolutia. I have to help Tails to carry Summers to his lab. Summers is really heavy right now, though I don't know why. While nearly everyone is making themselves at home, in the house section of the lab, Lexer and I decide to hang around Tails for a bit longer. I still need to know how he knows this much about Summers. So I ask him about it, right after Summers has been put in a place where he won't break free from. "Hey Tails. You still haven't told me how you got the information about Summers?"

Tails: "A lady named Seria told me about it. She wanted me to help you too."

Me: "So... is she here?"

Tails: "She had to go on a mission. But after that mission she said she'd come here."

Me: "I hope it won't take her too long."

Tails: "Do you happen to know a pink hedgehog, in a red dress?"

Me: "There are so many around here. But if you're talking about one named Amy Rose, then yes."

Tails: "Do you know where she is?"

Me: "Of course. She's in Karodo, together with the sister of Summers."

Tails: "That's on the other end of the world!"

Lexer: "You mean we traveled nearly halfway through the world in mere hours!"

Tails: "Is there something strange about it? I know a guy who can travel around the world at least twice as fast. His name is"

Lexer: "Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Tails: "You know him too?"

Lexer: "He's somewhere in this world. And Shadow too!"

Tails: "Can you tell me where they are?"

Lexer: "I don't know. I've only seen them once. And searching Shadow would not be a good idea."

Tails: "Why not?"

Me: "Because he declared us his enemies."

Tails: "Ohw... I'm sure Sonic will show up soon enough. First we'll go to Karodo in the Tornado 3!"

So that's the name... couldn't he come up with something better? Like the Thunderbolt? Ah well, it's his ship. Only Lexer, me and Tails go. The rest stays... together with Dr. Robotnik. They're playing card games and they can't beat Dr. Robotnik. Anyway, it takes 4 hours to get there. It's already getting dark by the time we arrive. We knock on Amy's door, and Jody opens it. She's not hurt anymore, and she ditched her ponytail and wears other clothes. Now she wears her hair... or spikes... whatever... loose. Her blue jeans have been replaced by black trousers, covered by a blue skirt. And she wears a blue tank top too. And then there's the 2 golden bracelets too. She doesn't become angry at all when she sees me. So at least that's taken care of. Now we all go in. Amy wears a blue dress, instead of the red one she used to wear. Must be some... girly thing. After some talk, they agree to pack their stuff and come to Tails lab in that big city, of which I still don't know the name of. I should ask it's name... The city is named Triak (Try-yek). Then Tails goes off to explain numerous of useless bits of information about it. And after that about his inventions! Even Lexer is annoyed by it! The useless junk coming out of his idols mouth. Luckily, after about 60 minutes, Jody puts a halt to it by slapping him in the face. It's not hard... but at least Tails knows he should stop wasting time now. And thanks to that, it will be very late by the time we get back. And we must get back today, otherwise Summers might do something unexpected.

We get onto the ship, and take off. About another 30 minutes have passed already since we left Amy's house. I decide to get a drink. I open the refrigerator... and SOMEONE IS IN IT! What the hell! That's that guy I fought. That... what's his name again? Oh yeah, Bass Shadnik. I take a jump backward, and he gets out. This time he has a shield and a damaged broadsword. Jody and Amy also get into the room to get something to drink. Too bad the fridge is empty. Bass took all... I think.

Bass: "Hah, you didn't expect me to be here, did you?"

Me: "What you say?"

Bass: "All your base are belong to me!"

Amy: "Cut that crap out! I hate it!"

Amy knows it? Strange... but there's no time to think about it. Bass runs at me, and tries to slash me with his sword. I can barely dodge it. Most of it. My forehead gets cut by the point, leaving a scar. There's not much blood coming out of the wound, but it did hit me. Amy throws her Pico Pico Hammer for me to use. It's pretty light. 30 Minutes pass with us fighting. Again, neither one is giving in. But the force of his blows has nearly worn me out. They're much more powerful then mine. Just when he's about to give his final blow, I see Tails sneaking behind him, and he gets shocked. "I was wondering what was taking you so long. So who is this guy?" Tails asks. "That guy beat me up! We should throw him out of the plane right now!" Seems Jody focused her anger on Bass, instead of me. "We should just tie him up. This guy wants to capture Summers. So he might know a way to do it." Tails agrees with me. All of us get some sleep before we arrive at Triak.

When we're there, Bass gets thrown into the same place as Summers. That bastard nearly killed me. Tails and Lexer do the research, while Amy and I go to bed after relaxing a bit. Jody keeps staring at her brother. The others were already asleep when we arrived.

I'm lying in my bed now... but I can't sleep. Everyone has their own room, by the way. Hours have passed already. I can't help but thinking about what special power I have. Then it shot into my head! When I fought Summers, he was clearly superior. But I could read him easily, and that made it seem I was about as good. Even so... his superiority would have taken me down much sooner if it wasn't for my ability. I'm not exactly sure about it... but I think I can drain the opponents energy, and use it myself. Now I only have to figure out... how I do it. I'd have to try it out. It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes for me to get asleep now...

In the morning, loud noises wake me. Everyone is panicking. Summers is gone! He wasn't even supposed to be able to move. He was being held by the power of a chaos emerald! But still, he escaped? Bass is gone too. Regulus, who's listening to the radio, picks up something odd. Summers is roaming the city, blowing up many buildings! He doesn't hurt anyone though. In about an hour, we finally find him. I try numerous times to drain his energy... but to no success. Well, it does have some success. But he has too much energy for me to handle. Bass, who's trying to capture him, can't hurt him either. Hours pass with us trying to stop him. The chaos emerald powered rockets of Tails don't work anymore. Solars Windmill Shuriken can't even scratch his skin. The flames of Blaze don't hurt him at all, and Regulus his strength doesn't either. Not even Jodies call reach out to him. All of us get repelled, time and time again. By now, my whole body really hurts. Constantly draining his energy, and wasting it away doesn't help at all. He just gets new energy. But what's his source? After several minutes, he goes into an idle state. Not moving, doing nothing. But he put up a very strong forcefield. None of use can even get near him now. Tails reads an enormous energy reading from Summers, and it's only building up rapidly. He picks up whoever he can with the Tornado 3 and flies away as far as possible. Shortly after, a huge explosion wipes away the whole city of Triad. Nearly everyone had evacuated the city already. But there were probably some others who were still there. I gotta do something about this. I gotta find some way to stop him. The plane is carrying about 100 animals right now. It can't stay in the air too much longer. So in about 15 to 30 minutes... we'll be grounded.

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New characters**

Name: **Miles "Tails" Prower**  
Age: 9  
Spike style: Much like his old fur style  
Color: Brown colored, white belly and white tips  
Other: A hedgehog with 2 fox tails  
This character needs no further introduction

Name: **Knuckles the Echidna**  
Age: 17  
Spike style: Much like that of Hero Red (he changed his style after he got into the Hedgehog Mania world)  
Less flame-like  
Color: Red  
Other: Is a bit more muscled than Hero Red  
This character needs no further introduction

Name: **Dr. Ivo Robotnik (also known as Eggman)**  
Age: Unknown  
Spike style: Short spikes  
Color: Black and red  
Other: A bit fat, for a hedgehog  
This character needs no further introduction


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 - Blue blue sky**

We've just landed on the ground. Most of the people from the ship go to nearby villages. Bass was on the ship too, but I can't find him anymore. I wonder what he'll be doing? Tails has just checked the engines, and comes to tell us the bad news. They're broke, and too much spare parts are needed. We might as well go to the closest town or city, and make an entirely new ship. According to Tails that would be fast... although just replacing the engine would be faster according to my logic. It's Tails, so i'm sure he knows what he's talking about.

For now... all I care about is resting. I don't want to think about anything. I lie on a grass hill, looking at the sky. It's not long before Jody joins me. "So... what are you thinking about?" She asks. "I just... want to rest my mind and body a bit. So much has happened ever since I got here." She doesn't say anything anymore. I keep staring at the mildly clouded sky, and she goes out for a walk after a couple of minutes. Right after that Lexer and Blaze join me.

Blaze: "Looking at the sky, eh? Things got a bit too much?"

Me: "I'm not on the verge of breaking down. But some relaxation like this once in a while is nice."

Lexer: "You've been pretty popular with the ladies. You can always get some ah... relaxation from them if you need."

I get up fast and look at Lexer. "What! No way, i'm not like that!" Is he out of his mind? "Come on, go make a move on Jody or Amy." He follows. Yeah... right. "I don't think you should take him too seriously." Blaze says. "But I AM serious! Seriously, you must be under immense pressure!" Lexer responds. "Yeah, I am under immense pressure. But I can handle it. Besides, they're friends. It would never work out between us. And I can't imagine me having little hedgehog kids yelling daddy at me either."

Lexer: "I hadn't thought about that yet."

Blaze: "Little hedgehog kids yelling daddy... Somehow I like the sound of that."

Lexer: "Wouldn't you just toast them when they annoy you?"

Me: "Lexer... I think you need to realize that ones own kids, and other kids... aren't the same thing."

Blaze: "Are you saying I would toast kids!"

Lexer: "Hell yeah!"

Blaze: "... ... ..."

I lie down again, and they leave. I still don't get much rest. Within several minutes Solar, Regulus and Overdrive sit down next to me. Chao plays in the grass... with the giant shuriken. Surprisingly... none of them say something. They just came... and leave after 30 minutes. They didn't say one single word, until they left. I suppose they wouldn't know what to say to me either. Now that everyone is gone, I fall fast asleep.

I get woken by Jody and... Seria. So she finally is back. I look around. It's dark already. Only Seria and Jody are there, the rest is gone. They left a note and a compass, saying we should travel to the south-east. I ask Seria what she did. She still hasn't accomplished her mission, which is to find a legendary source of near infinite energy. It's not the one that Summers uses, because only I know that Summers has an energy source. At the government, they're developing a special weapon that can annihilate anything. The reason she hasn't accomplished it yet is because she can't find much information about it. And she doesn't want to kill the brother of a friend.

Now, we head to the south-east. According to Seria, a mysterious underground village should be somewhere in the south-east too. Why not check it out?

**End of chapter**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19 - Child's play**

One week has passed now, since the city of Karodo got destroyed. There is a lot of ruckus being made about Summers. Everyone has heard of him by now. Many hedgehogs run away as far as possible. But... they don't get it. It's futile to run away from such a powerful creature.

The Malicious, on the other hand, is not planning to run away. No, he still wants his power. He's about to begin the final stage of his plan. The backup plan he had for when Hero wouldn't succeed in absorbing the power of Summers. He saw what he could do against Summers, and that was barely anything. But Hero is still needed. It's the only option of getting the power he needs, he thinks. He heard that about a genius hedgehog having some emeralds that can absorb a lot of power. Not only that, they can also give it. He supposedly is a friend of Hero. Getting him to let Hero use the emeralds to drain Summers empty isn't so hard. He'll also need another backup plan. Even if Hero fails again, if he dies it's all over. The things they need for it are in hidden government facilities.

The Malicious and his loyal henchmen all gathered info about the whereabouts of them for the past days. Now it's time to get the stuff.

_Infiltration #1: The professionals_

They're standing in front of the facility. It doesn't seem to big, but most of it is underground. "So, Jackal distract, you infiltrate?" Jackal asks Zero. "Yes. Don't do anything to suspicious. You're a great actor. Don't screw up." Jackal walks in front of Zero when entering the building. Once inside, Zero jumps up and crawls through the air-vents. Of course, they saw Zero behind Jackal on a camera when Jackal entered, but Zero was gone when Jackal was in the sight of the 2nd camera. 3 Security guards run up to Jackal, questioning him immediately. Another one climbs up in the vent that Zero entered. "Identify yourself!" one of the guards yells to Jackal. Jackal acts like a gentleman from a high status. "I am Jim Dustworth." He whips out a fake identification card. "I have orders to close down this research facility." One of the 3 guards grabs his fake ID and goes off to check it. "Wait here, sir. As we identify your ID." Jackal takes out the papers. Their fake, but they look exactly like the real thing. Jackal is a pro when it comes to these things. The guards read them.

Zero quickly grabbed the things they needed, and returns. The guy that followed him gets hit uncounscious on Zero's way back before he can even see him. Killing him would raise too much suspicion. He takes another way out, and ends up at a vent near the top of the building. It's unreachable from the outside. From there, he jumps down. About now, the ID got confirmed to be the real deal, and the guard tells his fellow guards that. Even the call he made confirmed that the research facility has to close down. Jackal leaves the papers, and takes the fake ID back. Jackal and Zero then peacefully left, without killing anyone, or making any ruckus. "Jackal, the way you set up things and act never ceases to amaze me. How the hell did you get away without your cover being blown?" Zero asks. "It was easy. Just Jackal way. And they shut down research facility now." Zero frowns upon hearing that. Jackal sure knows how to handle these things. "Jackal hungry. Eat some junkfood?"

_Mission success!_

_Infiltration #2: Ah... infiltration_

The facility Revenant has to infiltrate isn't underground at all. Everything is above. It's a very tall and broad building, the MI2 secret government organization. Of course, it's all a covered up not to let anyone suspect anything. The things she needs to get are on the 63rd floor. There are 70 floors in total. And she has no plan at all. That's probably the reason The Malicious send her.

She runs into the building, straight into an elevator. She then rips the top part of it, and climbs up. After climbing 20 floors she has to run to the other side of the building and take another elevator. Once she's on the 60th floor there are no elevators anymore. She has to take the stairs, running back and forth all the time. She's about to reach the 63th floor, when someone beats her down, with some kind of big metal object. She thought that she left everyone chasing her in the dust. It's a guy, and he has very long spikes. His right arm is a gun, and doesn't have any fur. He looks a bit like a robot. He takes a good look at her. "Hmm... whatever it is you need. It must be important. I won't stop you, go ahead." Revenant quickly runs up to the 63rd floor, grabs what she needs, and jumps all the way down. She doesn't have any scratch when she lands, with her being an undead hedgehog and all. She quickly runs away, while everyone who's chasing her are somewhere high up in the MI2 building. But why would that one guy just let her pass?

_Mission succeeded!_

Infiltration #3: One cat and many mice

The Malicious took on the hardest mission himself, of course. That is his responsibility as leader of the bad guys. It's an outside, open facility. Many snipers around too. But that's no problem for his energy shields. He just walks in, pushes everyone away that bothers him, grabs the things he needs, and goes away again. But when he's at the exit, an unexpected guest arrives. A guest named Summers. How did he get there? He flies very slowly into the camp, and no one is able to hurt him. Then all the hedgehogs there run away. The Malicious gets ignored by Summers. It seems Summers is heading towards the middle of it all. Probably wants to blow it up. The Malicious hastily runs away, and not much later an explosion blows him away. Luckily, he has his energy shields to protect him. After that he goes to his base.

_Mission completed!_

What did they gather? Zero and Jackal stole some hoverboards. Revenant grabbed a few coats them makes one invisible. The Malicious grabbed a gun that can shoot very strong energy rays, and an emerald that is supposed to power it.

**End of chapter**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20 - A-maze-ing**

After having traveled 3 days to the south-east, we found a cave. Seria told us that the mysterious village is supposed to be on the other end of the tunnel. Now, 2 days later... we're hungry and weak. And we're LOST! Man, I wish she knew that we wouldn't be facing a HUGE maze. So this is why there aren't many hedgehogs that know about this. It takes us several hours to finally find some water. The maze seems to be getting less complicated and wider too. "You think we're almost there?" I ask. And I asked it a lot of times before too. Most of the time one of them just answers; uhhh. But now... Seria's face changed when I asked that. Don't know if it's because of the water she drank, or my question. "There's water... I think that we'll reach the village after a few more miles." Finally a different response! "Do you think there are any civilization there? Or maybe even food?" Jody asks. Of course, smart Seria probably knows the answer. "If there's a civilization, there's food. But I think they've all passed away, so there just might be food." Might be food? I shouldn't have entered this place...

Well... she was right. We were near the village, and we finally arrive. But there's no one except for us. There is food, so we stuff ourselves after finding it, which didn't take long at all. Strangely, the food didn't seem to be there that long. Nothing was spoiled yet. And there's no one in the village. Who cares? At least we won't die out of starvation.

After stuffing ourselves to the limit we check out the village. It's a long shape, but not very wide. At the end there's a big sanctuary. We climb up, only to reach an altar. There's a sword lying on it. The blade is broken, nearly all of it is gone. The pieces are nowhere near the broken sword either. I walk up to it, though Seria warns me not to do it. Then I grab it, and take a look at it. It's very... shiny. The handle is very dark blue, though I thought it was black from a distance. When I turn around, the ceiling opens and the sanctuary starts shaking. I don't know what exactly is happening, but I have a slight idea. So I call Jody and Seria to get over to where i'm standing.

Just like I thought. A mechanism was triggered after I grabbed the broken sword, and now we're being raised to the surface... I think. We could always end up somewhere else too. It rises very slow. But after 15 minutes the speed picks a bit up. It takes about an hour before we can see daylight, and not long after we're on the surface again. Finally, broad daylight! Though we seem to be in the middle of... Jody taps me on my shoulder, and tells me to turn around. We ended up right next to a... city? I have no idea which one it is. We leave, as hedgehogs from all around rush to see the sanctuary. It's not my fault if that thing goes down again, and takes them with it. Before we enter the city, I look at the sign. We're at the west entrance of... Brick City? Brick? I wonder why they named it like that.

"Hey, you're finally here!" Tails? "That sword! My scanner says it has of a lot of energy. Can you give it to me!" Hasn't he heard of greeting friends? At least the ladies. Jody slaps him. That's the 2nd time now. Maybe I should keep counting them? "Show some respect for us, will you?" She says. "Ohw, sorry. Hello Jody! Hello Seria! I think I should bring you to the others first." What? He doesn't greet me? "You're darn right about that." Jody says. I give Tails the sword. "Just start examining it while we're on the way. It might come in handy someday." Tails looks at it's ahm... shininess. "Thank you, Hero!" So now he is polite? Hmm... might Jody have anything to do with that? We've been walking and talking for 15 minutes already. I wonder why Seria has been so quiet... She's the only one that didn't say a word. So... I decided to ask. She's walking a bit behind though.

Me: "What's up?"

Seria: "Ah... me? Everything is fine."

Me: "No, it's not. You know something about that sword, don't you?"

Seria: "The sword... it's a massive energy source. But... it's not the one i'm looking for. But..."

Me: "Not the one you're looking for? I already have an idea what it is now."

Seria: "Tell me."

Me: "No, not yet. I'll tell it if Tails is done examining that thing. I might be wrong about it."

She runs forward to Jody and Tails, and says them something. Then they all run to me. Ah... so she's using them to get to know it? No matter, if I tell them they might make wrong assumptions. We can't afford that.

Tails: "Hero, Seria said that you knew what this sword is."

Me: "Maybe, i'm not sure about it."

Tails: "Tell us."

Me: "No, I won't. I have my reasons for it."

Jody: "If you tell is, i'll tell you something special too."

Me: "You first."

Jody: "I... I love you."

Me: "That's not something special."

Jody: "But I really do."

Me: "Of course you do. It'd be pretty sad if you don't love a friend."

Jody: "Damn... you got me."

Me: "I don't fall for tricks like that."

Jody: "Yes, you did. You said that I should tell my thing first. So now it's your turn."

Me: "I ah... damn... I think this sword might be the power source of Summers."

Jody: "My brother doesn't use his own power?"

Me: "He does, but he needs energy. Every time I drained energy from him, he got it back within a second. Of course, it's logical to assume that no one has infinite energy themselves. They need to have something that refills it. And this isn't the source Seria was searching for, so that's why I think it might be the source your brother uses."

Seria: "So it's just a theory?"

Me: "It could also be that he just has infinite energy from himself, and I could be totally wrong. So Tails, don't examine the sword thinking you already know exactly what it does. I might be something else."

Man... I got tricked before I even used my own trick. So now they know. But I asked them not to say anyone else about it yet. It's not long before we arrive at a lab. A new lab that Tails build, and a house is in it too. How the hell did he manage to make that in a few days?

**End of chapter**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21 - Relic**

Upon entering the lab, Lexer greets Tails immediately. Right after that he greets Jody and Seria in a very polite way. But... just like Tails he forgets about me. I scratch my head. I'm curious what Robotnik is doing, so I ask Tails where he is. He's in the back of the lab, working on a secret weapon, powered by 2 chaos emeralds. I ask him where the 3rd one is, because I could swear he had 3. He lost the 3rd one. Someone who was on the plane must've stolen it. Jody and Seria go to the house part of the lab, where nearly everyone else is while I go to Robotnik. He's working hard, it seems. Too hard to notice me. "Hello there, Dr. Robotnik." He turns to me now. "Dr. Robotnik? No one called me Dr. Robotnik for a long time, except for myself. But alas, even I am getting used to calling myself Eggman." He's not really happy about what he's doing. "I'd say you should just keep calling yourself Dr. Robotnik with pride. Just don't get angered when others ignore it and call you Eggman. You'll eventually gain the respect you want, someday." He gets a smile on his face. "You're a wise young lad, aren't you? So you must be Hero, the one that everyone's been talking about."

Me: "Who's everyone?"

Robotnik: "Your friends, and the people who've seen you in action. You're pretty well known in this world. Not everyone gets abducted during the finals of a big tournament, you know."

Me: "I don't really care though. So... what are you working on?"

Robotnik: "A secret weapon. That's all you need to know."

We talk some more, and more. He even tells me why he wants to kill Sonic, but also doesn't want to kill him. After that, I go to the house section and meet up with the other guys. Regulus has something to show me. Something neat he discovered that he can do. Thing is... he doesn't want to show it. He wants to save it for the Evolutia Life Dome fighting tournament. But he will use it if it's needed before that. Nearly everyone has been training for that tournament, even Lexer. The ones that don't want to participate are Robotnik, Tails and Amy. Jody's still not sure about it.

2 weeks later...

A loud cry echos through the lab. "Yes! I've done it!" That was Tails. Everyone gathers around him.

Overdrive: "So you're finally done researching that stupid sword?"

Tails: "It's not, stupid."

Overdrive: "Anyway, what's the result?"

Tails: "This sword... it contains a lot of energy, but I don't know how anyone will be able to use that energy."

Blaze: "That's all?"

Tails: "No, that's what I discovered within 2 days of research. It also amplifies the special ability of whatever is using it."

Me: "So... if I would use it to drain Summer's energy, would I be able to drain him empty?"

Lexer: "No, it doesn't work that way. We also discovered that the sword is connected to Summers."

Me: "Did you discover that, or did you just cram my theory into it?"

Tails: "Lexer was the one that discovered it by altering the energy reader."

Lexer: "Your theory, Hero?"

Me: "Just a theory, I wasn't sure. Do you know if Summers gets his energy from that sword."

Lexer: "I don't know. But he does have some connection to it."

Me: "Is there someone else with a connection with it too?"

Lexer: "Maybe. The radar says that the person should be right here. I'm thinking you might be connected to it."

Me: "Now that's interesting... personally, I think i'm not the one. I think it's in the family, right Jody?"

Jody: "Ah... how would I know!"

Me: "You're his sister. It would only be logical if you had some connection with it too. Why don't you try it out?"

Jody: "But"

Me: "Just do it!"

Jody grabs the sword. She tries doing something, but nothing works. I think she needs a bit more pressure. I say she should go to the backyard, because there's more space there. I ask Blaze if he comes too. He agrees. The rest of them has to stay, because they'll stop me otherwise. Both of them are in the backyard now, waiting for instructions.

Me: "Blaze, I want you to fight Jody."

Blaze: "What! I can't fight her!"

Jody: "What the hell are you thinking!"

Me: "The 2 of you should just fight seriously, as if it's a life or death situation."

Blaze: "You can't be serious!"

Me: "I'm very serious about it. You're the perfect opponent for her."

Blaze: "But she's... I can toast her. She can't do anything special."

Jody: "So you're saying i'm weak!"

Blaze: "No, i'm not saying that. I'm sure saying you'd have a very big disadvantage."

It takes me a while before I can persuade them to fight each other. But I did. Now it's time for me to sit on a bench, and watch them fight. Jody starts by rushing to him, and trying to slash Blaze with the broken sword. Blaze simply shoots a fireball, and she gets blown backward against a wall. They do that over and over. Blaze is getting mad. Not at Jody, but at me. Jody can't even come close, and he hates to torture her like that. But no matter what, Jody keeps standing up. Each time, it's getting harder and harder for her to get up. Each time, her speed slows down. Until... Jody doesn't move anymore. Blaze looks angry at me, and wants to walk away. He stops once he hears something behind him. Jody is standing up again. "Don't you dare run away from me! We started this fight, and we'll finish it!" When she's finally on her legs, the broken sword becomes a sword of light. Jody's speed is recovered, and she dashes at Blaze. Just before she hits him, I snatch away her sword and she immediately drops to the ground. The sword also returns to it's broken state again. "Seems I was right. Thanks Blaze." He calmed down a bit, but he's still a mad.

I lift up Jody, and put her on a bed, inside the house section of the lab. She not really hurt. Just exhausted. Everyone is asking what happened. But there's no need for them to know. Blaze does understand it, so he doesn't say anything to them either. Either way, if Jody's physical ability gets amplified this much, then how much would it amplify the power of Summers? It's best if I keep the sword away from him.

**End of chapter**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22 - Last chance**

3 Days have passed, and right now everything seems to be normal again. In the meantime, Jody learned how to make a sword of light out of the broken sword. We couldn't find any information about a sword like that, so we just named it ourselves. There were many candidates, but Exal Grando came out victorious. We call it Exal for short. I also had a good conversation with Blaze. What I did is actually against his ways, but it was a necessary thing. He'll trust my words from now on, and I promised I wouldn't use him for something like that again.

Today... I woke up with a very bad feeling. And i'm not the only one. They all have it. It's time to leave from Brick City. Next stop will be Evolutia. We all gather outside, and everyone packed their stuff. It's rather empty outside. Just a few people are walking around. After looking around a bit, we see that there are posters on the walls everywhere. They weren't there yesterday. They say; Finally, look at this. The Malicious caught in a cage! "So, wanna check it out Hero?" Overdrive asks. "It's a trap." Robotnik responds. He looks at Solar. "We should send you, Solar." Yeah, that would be a good decision. "Make sure they don't see you." Is what I tell him while he climbs on a building. "I'll be back in 30 minutes. Wait at the edge of the city guys."

I think it's still a bit too dangerous for him. I tell them all to hide in the city, and keep a close eye to each other, while I'm going to keep an eye on Solar from a distance. "Hey Hero, i'll go too." It's not like I can actually stop Knuckles. He could be a real help. "Knuckles, you're a pro at digging through the ground, right?" Knuckles smiles. "Of course!" I tell him get behind the cage where The Malicious is supposed to be held. He starts digging right away, he goes through the ground like it's butter. I climb on a building, and jump from roof to roof. It takes 10 minutes before I see Solar spying on the revealed cage. There I stop. 5 Minutes later he's knocked out. Knocked out! Did someone just smack him now! Solar gets lifted up into the air, by something invisible. I decide to waste no more time, and target the thing that lifted Solar. I grab it before it notices, and drain it's energy. It doesn't have a whole lot of energy. Then it drops Solar, and becomes visible. There's a coat around him, and that's probably what he used to become invisible. I remove it. Huh? It's a girl?

Solar: "Thanks, Hero. What were you doing here?"  
Me: "I thought you might need my help. I The Malicious in the cage."  
Solar: "Yes, he is. Eggman was right. This is a trap."  
Me: "Man, I send"

The girl stands up slowly, then she immediately jumps of the building. Is she crazy? It's too high! Solar and I manage to grab her right in time. "Let me go, you bastards!" She yells. She got a death-wish or something? She struggles hard, and manages to free herself from our grasps. Then she flies away. She can fly? Okay, so she wasn't that crazy. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Chao pops up and rams her! It's good enough to knock her out, and she falls down. But no worries, because Knuckles is down there to catch her. I thought I told him to check the area behind the cage? "Good job, Chao!" Solar yells. It was indeed a good job.

Someone runs through the city, yelling that everyone should evacuate. Summers is coming! Oh man, could he have picked a worse moment? Right after we hear that, The Malicious breaks out of the cage and everyone starts panicking. There's no sign of Revenant, Zero or Jackal. Could they be invisible too? We climb down as fast as possible. Knuckles tied up that girl that attacked us. He carries her over his shoulder, and we run up to the girl that's yelling everyone should evacuate. "You're not lying, are you?" I ask. "I never lie!" She responded with pride. She looks at the girl Knuckles is holding. Then she takes a closer look. "Rosey?" She wonders. The Malicious rushes past us unexpectedly. He missed us, probably on purpose. Then he stops. "Heh, Hero. I knew you'd be here." he says. Knuckles gets hit out of nowhere, but he doesn't drop Rosey, if that is her name.

A sudden flash comes from behind The Malicious. Summers is already there. Revenant, Zero and Jackal get revealed too. Their coats stopped working. They all have hoverboards too. The Malicious turns around. "Damn, already here?" He grabs a big, weird looking gun. "Let's see if this works." He says. He then shoots a big blast of energy with the gun at Summers. Summers is stunned, and doesn't move at all. Now he turns to us again. Right out of nowhere, Regulus comes with an immense speed at The Malicious! The Malicious puts up his shield fast enough, but Regulus goes right through it and The Malicious flies backward, right against Summers. Regulus looked like a friggin' bullet! Summers gets released from his frozen state because of that, and The Malicious quickly makes sure he gets away. He steps on his hoverboard and flies past us, calling his 3 minions with him. He's about to use his gun again to stun Summers, but Overdrive jumps in front of him, and he blows him and his minions away with an explosion he created out of nothing. So he had something too.

Summers puts up a barrier goes into his idle state again, getting ready to blow up this city too it seems. The newest Tornado comes flying at us. On it's way, Jody jumps out with Exal pointing downwards, right above Summers. Is she trying to kill her brother? As soon as Exal comes in contact with the barrier, it explodes and a very strong wind is created. Jody is blown towards us, and Knuckles manages to catch her. She's unconscious now, but she doesn't even let go of Exal Grando. Summers gets up, puts up another barrier, and gets ready to destroy the city again. Tails picks us up, flying away as far as possible within time. The Malicious, Revenant, Zero and Jackal had already disappeared before we got picked up. A humongous explosion follows!

Again... another city destroyed without us being able to do anything about it. But we did manage to slow him down. He turned Brick City into a pile of bricks, but I have a plan now. I'll need everyone 's help though. After we're done preparing, it's time to hunt down Summers.

**End of chapter  
**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23 - Now or never**

We've been flying for 2 hours now. Lilly Fluff is the name of one of the female hedgehogs we picked up. Obviously, she likes flowers. The one we captured is her sister, Rosey Fluff. So... strange coincidences like this do happen. Lilly hasn't seen her sister for nearly 2 whole years. She says we should just keep her sister tied up for the moment. Her twin sister, to be exactly. She doesn't want to say what happened to them, but that doesn't really matter. A few minutes later, Rosey finally wakes up. Lilly is the first thing she sees.

Rosey: "YOU! I can't believe you're siding with these villains!"  
Lilly: "You are the one that's siding with villains! I just met these people. And why are you helping The Malicious anyway!"  
Rosey: "How do you know I work for him! And it's only been a couple of weeks."  
Solar: "You used the same equipment as The Malicious and his buddies did. It's not that hard to find out you're one of them."  
Rosey: "I didn't ask ya anything, stupid retard!"

Lilly tapes her mouth shut. She's a lot nicer to other people than her own sister... although she must have good reasons for it. We put her in a room, so she doesn't make too much noise. Lilly sighs. "She wasn't like this before... She hasn't changed one bit."

Then a big energy beam blasts through the ship, leaving a big hole. No one got hurt, but half of the engine got destroyed. Now the ship is on a crash course. I hasten myself to the cockpit, to ask what's going to happen. "Don't worry, boy. We will land soft, silent and safely." Robotnik tells me. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Robotnik worked with both Tails and Lexer on this newest Tornado. The Tornado 4. A few minutes later, we land on the ground. I didn't even notice when we were on the ground. We go outside. There's no one in sight, but the color of the beam was definitely the same as the ones Summers uses. Did he blast us from that huge distance? Lexer informs us that it will take about 30 minutes before the Tornado 4 can fly again. The holes will still be there though. But 30 minutes is still really impressive.

When it's done, we go into the plane again, and continue our flight to Evolutia. We arrive in another hour. During that time, Jody becomes conscious again too. I explain my plan to them, and the next day we're off to hunt Summers. Easily said, my plan is to beat the crap out of him, until he has no energy left. I don't know any other effective way, because none of us has an idea where his source of power is. But we can't just let him roam around either. A good strategy is needed for it, and I have it. Everyone goes, except for the twin sisters. Rosey won't be any help to use, and someone has to keep an eye on her. And that someone is her sister Lilly. Everyone thinks the plan is kind of far fetched, but it's better than running away each time, letting him do massive destruction. Besides, he won't have time to do anything.

We find him after only a few hours of search. From the looks of it, he is heading for Evolutia. But he's still very far away, and won't get there if my plan works. We all leave the plane, except for Tails. Everyone gets into position, and places a full out attack. First of all, Jody uses Exal to break his barrier. She gets blown away, but she was expecting it. After that, Robotnik uses his secret weapon, the Chaos Bazooka to stun Summers, over and over. Tails flies around and once in a while shoots a missile, that helps to reinforce the stun. Seria ties him up with her wires, so he won't go far anywhere. Then Regulus makes repeated use of his special ability, Bullet Blast, to do massive damage to him. The wires of Seria aren't enough to hold him, but that's where Overdrive comes in. He has to keep him in place too, and deal damage at the same time by using his special explosion ability, which he calls Overdrive. And Blaze keeps shooting fireballs to deal a lot of damage. The remaining ones, which are Lexer, Jody, Amy, Knuckles and myself, are doing close range damage to him in whatever way we can. I have a second task though, and that is to sense how much energy he has left and drain him whenever necessary.

After doing this for roughly 15 minutes, he's finally nearly out of energy. I quickly tell them all to stop, and Jody hands over Exal Grando to me. Then I proceed to drain the rest of his energy, because the sword allows me to absorb much more. Just when I thought he was completely empty, he grabs my left arm, which has Exal in it. He squeezes it in such a way, that my hand opens and I drop the Exal. He blast me away, and the moment he grabs the handle of the sword, a sudden flash blinds us all. It takes me several seconds before I can see anything again. Slowly, my sight recovers. Most of my friends are on their knees, or lying on the ground. Not one of them is knocked out.

Summers... he's standing there, with Exal Grando leaning on his shoulder. And I see a smile on his face. What exactly happened? 

**End of chapter**

**Chapter bonus!**

The Malicious was watching our fight from a distance.

Malicious: "Hmpf, not exactly how I thought it would go, but at least he's normal now. Not much longer until I can claim what is mine."

Jackal: "It shall take approximately 3 months before the source is ready."

Malicious: "Why don't we go entertain ourselves until then?"

Zero: "Hah, I can't wait to beat up that stupid Solar in the tournament!"

Revenant: "And I still need to settle the score with that power guy, flame guy and the bratty foxhog.

Jackal: "No matter who Jackal fight, Jackal shall prevail!"

Malicious: "I'm curious to see how strong Hero really is. How much has he grown? When any of you fights against either Hero or Summers... lose the fight then. Those are the 2 that will be mine."

Jackal: "No worries. Jackal take care of that."

* * *

**New characters**

Name: **Lilly Fluff**  
Age: 16  
Gamefaqs member name: **Fictional character created by myself.**  
Color: Lightblue  
Spike style: Pointing a down, long until halfway of the back, much like hair.  
Others: Wears a yellow headband with the image of a lily on it (that's a flower). She wears dark blue jeans, and a dark green T-shirt with a pink heart on it.  
Side: Good  
Time in the Hedgehog Mania world: about 5 years before she gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 22  
Role: Do-good-girl that has to take care of some personal affairs with her twin sister.  
Personality: Sweet girl, saving others and doing good deeds are what she does. Her heart is too big for her own good.  
Backround: Lilly and Rosey come from a very rich family. Lilly was playing with her sister Rosey in the garden before they got transported to the Hedgehog Mania world. They were both 11 back then. 2 Years later, Lilly's sister got a boyfriend. About 1 after that, her sister was dumped by him, and she was devastated about it. Shortly after, her Rosey became corrupted and mean. They got in a disagreement, and Lilly got beat up by her sister, who then went away. They haven't seen eachother since then. Lilly started a journey to help as much hedgehogs as possible. She traveled a few months together with Jody and Summers. Rosey's whereabouts are unknown.  
Special power: She can make herself untouchable

**Status growth:  
Power: 4/10  
Battle speed: 10/10  
Endurance: 4/10  
Melee fighting: 9/10  
Strategy: 9/10  
Running speed: 10/10 **

Name:** Rosey Fluff**  
Age: 16  
Gamefaqs member name: **Fictional character created by myself.**  
Color: Almost as blue as Sonic  
Spike style: Spikes are formed like a rose  
Others: Wears a white headband, with the image of a rose on it. She wears black jeans, black sweater and black-grey sneakers.  
Side: Evil  
Time in the Hedgehog Mania world: About 5 years before she gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 22  
Role: Twin sister of Lily that's on the evil side  
Personality: A very mean girl. She doesn't even know anymore how trust anyone, but for some reason she can't commit suicide either. She randomly beats people up too. She became a bit nicer during the last few weeks though, ever since she met The Malicious she learned to respect others a bit more but she's still a mean and feisty hedgehog.  
Backround: Lilly and Rosey come from a very rich family. Lilly was playing with her sister Rosey in the garden before they got transported to the Hedgehog Mania world. They were both 11 back then. 2 Years later, Rosey got a boyfriend. About 1 year later she was dumped by him, and she was devastated about it. Shortly after, she became corrupted and mean. She got in a disagreement with her sister, and beat her up, who then went away. They haven't seen eachother since then. Rosey tried to make as much people sad as her during the last few years. A few weeks before her entry into the story she stopped mostly with that though, since she met The Malicious. Lately she has been too busy to ruin other peoples lives.  
Special power: Fly

**Status growth:  
Power: 8/10  
Battle speed 8/10  
Endurance :5/10  
Melee fighting: 8/10  
Strategy: 7/10  
Running speed: 10/10**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24 - Making deals**

We all step in the Tornado 4, and go home. We finally did it, Summers is back to normal. He's not really happy though. He killed a lot of hedgehogs. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. He can't remember everything, but he remembers a lot from what he did. And he just doesn't know how to apologize. He's very silent, and not interested in meeting any of the new people right now.

Once we're in Evolutia, he decides to take a walk with his sister. To talk and stuff... I think. I'll just leave him, I shouldn't ask him for help anytime soon. Seria, Robotnik, Tails and Lexer were discussing something. They ask me to join them.

Me: "What's this about?"

Seria: "We need to ask you something."

Me: "Fire away."

Seria: "Should we search for Malicious, and take care of him for once and for all?"

Me: "Take care of The Malicious? Why're you asking me?"

Robotnik: "You're the one who knows his power the best."

Me: "It's true, we can easily take care of him. But... I think we should leave him be."

Lexer: "Why!"

Me: "Because he'll be at the Life Dome fighting tournament anyway."

Seria: "And why would you want that?"

Me: "To fight. That's all."

Tails: "You realize you can't beat him, right?"

Me: "I have a chance if I train hard for the remaining time."

Lexer: "I don't think we should 've asked you."

Me: "Then you shouldn't have. It's up to you what you want to do with him. I won't stop you, but I won't help you either."

Robotnik: "Okay, we won't do anything for now. But if he wins the tournament, we will gang up on him."

Me: "No, I won't allow that. Either you'll get him before the tournament, or you don't."

Seria: "Why are you so stubborn?"

Me: "If he wins, we have no right to stop him. Don't worry, i'll beat him for sure."

Seria: "... ... ..."

And with that, I take my leave. I gave Summers enough time to talk some with his sister. I have a few questions for him. Regulus and Overdrive have questions for him too, so they accompany me. While searching, we have a conversation.

Regulus: "What did you discuss?"

Me: "Nothing special."

Regulus: "Okay."

Overdrive: "So what are we going to do now? We have to do something not to get bored right?"

Me: "Weren't we already signed up for the tournament? So we're going to train until then."

Overdrive: "But after that?"

Me: "I don't know. I'm planning to stay here in this world."

Overdrive: "What about The Malicious?"

Me: "Don't worry about him."

Regulus: "I think i'll try to find a way to get home."

Overdrive: "You miss your family and all? Yeah, I guess I should find a way to get home then too."

Regulus: "What about you Hero? Why do you want to stay? You have no one to return to?"

Me: "I have... but... I just don't know... not exactly. Half of me says I should stay here, while the other half says I should go home. So i'll stay, until I have a definite answer. Who knows, there might be no way back."

Regulus: "Yeah..."

Me: "Don't let that discourage you. Just keep on searching until you find it or die."

After a few hours we still haven't found anything. Where the hell could they have gone? What we did found was... Bass Shadnik. Actually, he found us. "Hey, it's you! Tell me where Summers is, now! I know you returned him back to normal already. Speak up!" He does get his information fast. But couldn't he find out we're searching for him ourselves too, because he's been stalking us for 30 minutes already. "Fool! We don't know, we're looking for him too." He grabs his sword, and points it at me. "Should I make that scar I left on your head a little bigger this time?" A weird looking bullet hits him as he said that. Looked like an electric ball. He falls forward on his knees. "Are you hedgehogs okay?" Blaze asks. "Yeah, we're fine. It's 4 against 1 now Bass. Still wanna fight?" Bass stands up, and puts his sword on his back. "I'll fight you some other time. Right now, I have to find Summers." He throws a smoke bomb. After the smoke disappears, he's gone. I'm sure Summers can take him. No need to worry. I look at the guy that helped us. He doesn't have any fur, and his skin looked really weird. He wears a coat to hide most of it. His expression says he has good intentions though. "What's your name, stranger?" Regulus asks him. "I'm Ryoukusho Guy." We didn't really hear it correctly. "Ryouwhatguy?" Regulus asks now. "Ryou-kusho Guy. Just call me Ryou, to prevent any confusion. I have to go now, Regulus. I'll see you guys some other time." Ryou makes his leave. After he disappeared in the crowd, we realize something. "How did he know my name?" Regulus asks us. "I dunno. We'll just ask it next time we see him." Overdrive responds. It's been many hours, so we're going back to Tails 's lab now. Maybe Jody and Summers are back already.

On the way back, we encounter Blaze. "Hey, what took you guys so long?" He was searching for us. "Dear brother, so what did you do all this time?" The voice came from above. A hedgehog was standing on a house. He looks like water, especially with his spikes changing form too. "Aquis! What? you're here to make fun of me? I won't lose to you, never!" Blaze responds.

Aquis: "Huh, you're as hotheaded as always. I'm here to check up on you. To see how you've progressed, little brother."

Blaze: "And how do you plan to do that?"

Aquis: "There's a tournament to be held in this city. I expect to see you there."

Blaze: "Idiot, i'm way stronger than you!"

Aquis: "Strength is not everything. I'll show you. Don't disappoint me."

Aquis leaves. So he's Blaze's brother. "Why didn't you tell us you had a brother, Blaze?" Regulus asks him. He doesn't respond. I can nearly see him overheat. Probably just a case of rivalry with his brother, that he just couldn't defeat. "Hey Blaze, you'll beat him for sure this time." He calms down and looks at me. Then he scratches his head. "Yeah, i'll be sure to beat him this time! ... ... ... Did I tell ya I couldn't beat him? How did ya know?" I said a bit too much, I think. "Ah... it's kind of obvious, him being your brother and all. He called you little brother, so how much older is he?" He sighs. "He's nearly 1 year older." I thought they were twins, actually. I hope he realizes that he's probably much stronger than his brother was at the same age. After a short walk we're back at the lab. Summers and Jody are back, so we searched for nothing.

Me: "Summers, I gotta ask you something. You did a lot of bad things when you turned evil. What are you going to do now?"

Summers: "I have some things to take care of. Things involving The Malicious. After that, there's only one thing I can do. Help the hedgehogs of this world until I am unable to."

Me: "That's good. I have an idea that could spread some good reputation for you around. It should make things a lot easier for you."

Summers: "You mean the tournament? I was already planning that."

Jody: "And i'm entering too! You still owe me a match, Hero."

Me: "I do? Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about that. I'm gonna check how the twin sisters are doing now."

Jody: "You might not want to disturb them."

Me: "It can't be that bad."

Summers: "I hope you make it back alive."

I wonder what that is all about? Anyway, upon entering the room that they're in...

Rosey: "Untie me! I'm your sister!"

Lilly: "No, I won't."

Rosey: "I promise i'll be good!"

Lilly: "That's what you said the first time too! And then you beat me up!"

Rosey: "Come on, I need to move around a bit! I've been tied up for a whole day already!"

Lilly: "No."

Rosey: "Stupid sister..."

That goes on for a while. After some time, I suggest something. I'm letting them make a deal with each other. They fight it out in the tournament. The winner decides what the loser must do, but they can't kill them. They both agree. After that, I untie Rosey, and escort her out of the lab. "Thanks!" She says, before taking her leave. Her sister heard that. "She said thanks?" She asks. I turn to her, but still leave the door open. "What's so strange about that?" She turns around, and looks down. "She never said thanks, ever since then. Ever since" She's interrupted. "Hey, Hero! Hows things goin'?" I turn around. It's Sonic. "Things are okay. You might want to come inside. Tails and Amy are there." His expression widens, and his mouth drops open. "Are you serious!" He quickly runs inside, past us. "Where are they?" He asks. "They're in the back of the lab. It's easy to see. He runs quickly to that part. "So what were you" Someone bumps me in the back of my head. I turn myself around. So he's here too? "I saw Sonic go inside. Lead me to him." Shadows says. "Wasn't I your enemy?" I ask. "Only that fiery friend of yours. Now take me to Sonic!" Jody slaps Shadow. "Didn't you learn any manners. Ask us politely." Shadow stares her in her eyes. "Maria... Okay then. Will you take me to Sonic?" Jody's looking strange at him. Hah, she's probably wondering why he called her Maria. She should 've played Sonic Adventure 2, which she couldn't have... "As long as you don't attack my friend Blaze." He agrees not to attack him while he's there. I leave him alone with Sonic who's making plans with Amy, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik to get back to their world. Shadow had a hard time getting into the discussion, but he managed to persuade Sonic to enter the tournament. With my help, of course.

Sonic and Shadow also stay at the lab. Shadow doesn't attack Blaze. He wants to take care of him in the tournament. Things seems rather peaceful right now. And like this, the remaining time passes to. All of us trained very hard, and many learned new abilities and tricks. They keep most of it a secret though. Not much longer to the tournament. Today is the big day. It starts. For a period of 2 months, strong hedgehogs fight for the title of the strongest.

Am I up to the challenge? Hell yeah!

**End of chapter

* * *

**

**New characters **

Name: **Ryoukusho "Ryou" Guy**  
Age: 25  
Gamefaqs member name: **BubblewrapGuy**  
Color: Green with a red patch of fur on his chest.  
Spike style: Spiky, with each spine growing so long it touches his leg.  
Others: Wears a long light-brown trenchcoat, a light-brown hat, and black boots. His right arm is an arm cannon, often wears a bamboo staff in his left hand to do some minor magic.  
Side: Neutral  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 18 years before he gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 19  
Role: A guy that desperately wants to win the Evolutia Life Dome tournament  
Personality: A very friendly guy and a real gentlemen. When he's excited he tends to forget his manners though. He's not good in co-operating with others, but helps in whatever way he sees fit. People with good manipulative skills can make him do what they want though.  
Backround: He was tranfered to the Hedgehog Mania world when he was 12. On his 15th he managed to work his way into MI2. While working for the MI2, a secret government organization, he got most of his skin eaten away by parasites when on a mission. His right arm also got eaten, and he barely survived. He was 22 back then, and was one of the 3 legendary secret agents for the government. Only he is alive to this day. MI2 scientists used the same kind of parasites to replace his skin. Doesn't look as good as normal skin and there's no fur except for a red patch on his chest, but at least it's a replacement. This skin is much harder to destroy or cut too. His right arm has been replaced by an arm cannon, which is linked directly to his brain. He wants to join the tournament, because the winner can get nearly everything he or she desires. He wants a special material, that makes it seem like he's a hedgehog again. Fur and all. And he wants to get rid of his arm cannon too, and that's also something that the special material can do.  
Special power: His arm cannon is attached to his brain which now generates a lot more electricity than normal, and he uses the arm cannon to fire electromagnetic bullets, shooting them too much gives him a headache and may kill him if not careful.

**Status growth:  
Power: 10/10  
Battle speed: 6/10  
Endurance: 9/10  
Melee fighting: 5/10  
Strategy: 9/10  
Running speed: 7/10**

Name: **Aquis Krezne**  
Age: 20  
Gamefaqs member name: **Fictional character that Magitek111 made.**  
Color: He is a watery sort of color  
Spike style: The spike style never stays the same,it changes every few seconds. It's rather short though.  
Others: Light-blue and white sneakers  
Side: Neutral  
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 2 years before his brother Blaze gets introduced into the story  
First appearance: Chapter 24  
Role: Brother of Blaze  
Personality: While Blaze is hot-headed and firey, Aquis is cool,calm and collected, but he won't say no to a good fight. He likes to annoy his younger brother too.  
Backround: When he got into the Hedgehog Mania world, he had absolutely no idea what to do. So he did what he has always done. Follow his little brother around and get in his way. And that's all he has done in the time that he's in the Hedgehog Mania world.  
Special powers: Aquis has control over water,ice and steam. He can also create a blade from ice, but barely uses it because it drains a lot of energy.

**Status growth:  
Power: 6/10  
Battle speed: 9/10  
Endurance: 7/10  
Melee fighting: 8/10  
Strategy: 8/10  
Running speed: 8/10****  
**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25 - Preliminary rounds**

We're inside the Life Dome, standing in the arena together with a lot of other participants. There are nearly 3000 fighters that entered in total. We have to fight 15 battles in 25 days, and if we win 8 battles we advance to the 2nd preliminary round. For the first 5 battles we have to fight each day, after that we have 1 day rest in between. Even if we win the first 8, we still have to fight the 7 remaining battles. In the 2nd preliminary round you're teamed up with 1 other hedgehog, and have to go through a very long and hard obstacle course. At least, that's what they say. If we don't make it until the end within 4 days, we're scrapped from the tournament. The location for won't be revealed yet. The ones who remain will be fighting in the main rounds of the tournament. They assured us that not many fighter will remain after the first 2 preliminary rounds. That's a relief... or maybe not.

**_Part 1 of the preliminaries_**

The arena floor goes down, and we're in a very big hall with many small fighting arenas. We get told there are 100 of them. After 30 minutes of arranging and hustling, each arena has 30 fighters, except for 2. They have 28.

Anyway, 11 days pass, and I easily own everyone. I've won all 8 battles that I had. So did most of the others. We don't have anything to worry about for now. Unfortunately, 1 of my friends will get a loss right now. They were unlucky, and got matched up against each other. I'm just in time to watch their match.

_Chick fight! Seria VS Jody!_

Jody: "I'm taking you down!"

Seria: "We'll see about that."

Jody runs up to Seria, but she bumps against something near invisible. Seria's wires, and it doesn't seem she can get through them. She concentrates. What's she going to do? She punches into the ground. "Energy storm!" Jody yells. From beneath Seria, a whirlwind of energy is created. The same kind of energy Summers uses. Seria's wires are broken by it too. She can barely manage to escape it, and when she does Jody is already up to her. Jody starts off a combo, thrusting her into the air with a kick. Then she jumps into the air, showing off her impressive Sky Reaper style. After taking a few in the air, Seria teleports beneath Jody and she kicks her in the back. Then she ties Jody up with her wires, and uses her as a boxing ball. Jody takes a few hits, and unleashes energy to destroy the wires. They're both very tired now. Jody runs up to Seria, and punches her in the face. Seria falls down to the ground, knocked out.

A few seconds later Jody falls too, before she's announced as the winner. Ah, that's a shame. Just a few seconds more and Jody would've won. Maybe it has something to do with the fact I didn't want one beating the other? Their fight was a draw, but it's going to be noted as a loss for both.

I continue to dominate everyone else for a few weeks. Up to day 25, only Jody and Seria out of us have one loss. There are still a few who have to fight though. I'm checking up on one of the bad guys, Jackal. His fight had already been going on for a while. when I arrive, Jackal gets a kick against his head, flooring him. He's knocked out! He was defeated by a mysterious silver colored hedgehog wearing a jacket. He barely beat him though. After he rested a bit, and Jackal stood up, I make a talk with the jacket wearing guy.

Me: "You must be really strong if you defeated that guy."

JacketHog: "Not really. I lost 2 times already. I was totally dominated by them."

Me: "Might I ask who defeated you?"

JacketHog: "The Malicious, I believe. And a gross looking girl. If she didn't look so messed up, she'd look really hot. Revenant is her name."

Me: "Those are 2 of the strongest fighters in the entire tournament."

JacketHog: "I knew about The Malicious being strong... but that girl too!"

Me: "She works for him. So what's your name? I'm"

JacketHog: "Hero Red. I heard about you. You pretty much defeated everyone without doing anything, right? You must be one of the strongest ones in the tournament too. I'm Jack Matis. I heard you had several encounters with The Malicious and the spawn of evil, Summers, and you survived each time!"

Me: "It's not that impressive trust me. And Summers isn't evil anymore. With a whole group I managed to turn him back. He's in this tournament too, by the way."

Jack: "Whoa, that's some heavy stuff! Definitely impressive! I'll be heading home for now. See ya."

That guy is pretty strong. Much stronger than he thinks he is. The next day, only about 1200 contestants arrive. Those that are out of the tournament because of heavy injuries and too much losses aren't there.

My buddy for the next few days get chosen. The pairs all have the same win-lose ration. Out of the 1200 contestants, only 34 don't have a single loss. There are just a couple with 1 loss. Most of them have 3 to 6 losses. Anyway, my buddy is... Bass Shadnik? Uhm... not really a buddy. But I don't have much choice... at least it's better than what Summers has. The Malicious & Summers: Biggest buddies in history! Jody gets paired up with Jackal. I expect her to slap Jackal many times during this preliminary round. Anyway, the other pairs are:

_Seria & Jack (I wonder how Jack would respond if he finds out she was a he)_

_Zero & Lexer (They shouldn't have much trouble working together)_

_Solar & Aquis (Hmm... somehow I don't think they actually get along)_

_Regulus & Ryou (They seem to get along very well)_

_Overdrive & some guy I don't know (tough luck, Overdrive)_

_Revenant & also some guy I don't know (Man... does Revenant eat others? I hope not)_

_Blaze & Shadow (coincidence? I can't imagine them getting to the end...)_

_Sonic & Lilly (They'll be there in the blink of an eye... I think)_

_Rosey & Knuckles (I feel kinda sorry for poor Knuckles)_

**_Part 2 of preliminaries_**

After all pairs have been announced, we have to step in groups of 120 in 10 different elevators. When we get out, there is no sight of the others. There are other 10 different elevators. This time, we have to step in them in groups of 12. When we finally get down, there are 10 entrances. Each group of 2 has to pick a different entrance, and they can't go back. Bass choose the one we take. We enter, and a trapdoor behind us closes. It's kind a linear right now. We run for 2 hours through a thin hall, before we finally end up in a very big room. It seems we're at the bottom. Looking up, I see a couple of pairs of hedgehogs jumping and running. They don't cross each other. It's more like, they can't. The design is pure genius. They made it in a way that the pairs can see each other, but can't reach each other.

Bass is playing boss. He leads the way. I'll just let him, because there's no use in arguing. We go through numerous halls and split ways for several hours. Then we end up in a big room, and the door behind us closes. Whenever we try to go to the open door, it closes. The elevator doesn't work, and the 3rd door is closed. A short time later, 2 others arrive through the other door. Speakers explain we have to fight, and the losers are out of the tournament. They don't seem very tough. I'll just let Bass handle them. "Bass, you up for it?" I ask him. "You're letting me fight alone! YEAH!" The opponents are a bit startled by it.

So... they fight. The 2 opponents are pretty fast. Too fast for Bass. After a couple of minutes I decide to step in, and KO one of them. Bass then easily takes care of the other one. "What the hell were you doing!" I couldn't just let him get too tired. Who knows what other things lure. "We can't waste too much time or energy." An elevator brings a person with food, and water. The guy picks up the ones we beat, and takes them up with the elevator. The food and water is for us. Each day food and water will be brought to those rooms too, so we can go back to restore strength if needed. We eat and drink and we go on, through the 3rd door that opened now.

The 2nd part mainly consists of climbing. Halfway up, there's a resting point. So we take off for the day, and go on the next day. We climb further up, and after that we're in another big room. Another fight, it seems. We take them out very quickly. Yet again, we get served food water and the ones we beat are taken away. When we go on, we have to climb up again. It's the same distance as we climbed before we had our last fight. After that there's another resting point. But it's only been 4 hours since we slept. So we just go on. We have to jump over many gaps now. BIG gaps. Kinda dangerous. About 4 hours later we arrive at the next part fighting room. Bass had some trouble jumping, though I did it without any problems. The team we have to fight only has had 1 fight yet. This is our 3rd one. So... we just beat them up, and proceed after eating and drinking a bit. The guy from the elevator says that we're at the last part already, and that there's only 1 fight left for us.

We go on with the last part. This time it's puzzles, riddles and mysteries. That's what the sign says. First one is easy, find the colored blocks in the room, and place them in the right spot. Takes us 5 minutes to solve. After 10 rooms, there's a bed to rest. We've been up for a long time already... 10 hours. But we're so close. We might as well press on. The next puzzles, mysteries and riddles are much harder, and there are 15 of them in total. It takes us 6 hours to solve them all. The last one took us an hour. The last fighting room... we're there now. This didn't drain a lot of energy, though we're a little tired of being up for more than 16 hours.

Our opponents have won 2 fights. Not that it matter, because we easily kick their ass. Yeah, we made it! We step in a very big elevator. Different from the one the 'butler' uses. Surprisingly, we're the first to arrive.

**_Preliminaries completed_**

**_Pair: Hero Red and Bass Shadnik_**

**_Time taken: 29 hours and 43 minutes_**

**End of chapter**


	26. Chapter 26

**Pre-chapter 26 Bonus**

Let's take a look at how the pairs of the bad guys are doing in the 2nd part of the preliminaries.

_Rosey & Knuckles_

They're at the first part, the maze part.

Rosey: "What are you doing Knuckles! It's this way!

Knuckles: "No, it's not. It's this way!"

And all the time it goes like that.

Rosey: "Look, this red block belongs in the blue hole. And the purple block in the yellow hole.

Knuckles: "You made a mistake. The purple one belongs in the blue hole. And the red one belongs in the yellow hole."

Rosey: "No, it's... The... ARGH! Now I forgot! Look what you did, stupid! I hate men!"

Knuckles: "So what? I hate woman!"

_Jackal & Jody_

Jody leads the way, while Jackal just follows her. And then... they see a couple of other hedgehogs beneath them. Jackal starts laughing and won't stop. "Shut up!" Jody says to him. Jackal stops... for a few seconds. And he starts again. Jody sighs...

So... after a long time, they've finally reached the puzzle part. Jackal takes the lead all of a sudden. He solves the puzzles like it's nothing. Jody's amazed by his skills. So... he isn't as dumb as he seems.

_Revenant & guy named Gin Drake_

Revenant walks in a fast tempo, leading the way. The guy behind her is nervous. Not just that... he's frightened. So he doesn't dare to say something to her, or else she might kill him, he thinks. Though Revenant isn't really smart, she's not that stupid either. Often she walks into a dead end, resulting in going back. Her expression seems indifferent about all the time. Despite all this, they do get further. Though Revenant is surely taking her time.

_Zero & Lexer_

They don't say anything against each other. They just use simple signs to show the other where to go. Lexer refuses to talk against a bad guy, while Zero refuses to talk against a friend of Solar. But they still manage to get through the 2nd part of the preliminaries pretty easily. But because they don't say anything against each other, some things take a bit long. They don't help each other to get across platforms, and both just puzzle away without asking for the help of someone else. They stick together though.

_The Malicious & Summers_

They don't haste themselves. But they don't get stuck either. Shouldn't be surprising since both of them are smart and calm guys. When they're about halfway through...

Summers: "Malicious, what are you planning? You said you wanted me. You wanted Hero too."

Malicious: "I don't need you anymore. You've done your part."

Summers: "And Hero?"

Malicious: "He has a dark side, but for some reason it's taking too long to awaken. After that i'll make him work for me."

Summers: "You sure you're telling the truth?"

Malicious: "I don't lie."

Summers: "You still haven't told me your intentions."

Malicious: "I want to create a better world."

Summers: "By becoming an absolute ruler."

Malicious: "By banishing all the bad hedgehogs in the world. Then I shall lead the good ones into the right direction."

Summers: "You're crazy, you know that."

Malicious: "I know i'm not. I don't care what you think."

**Chapter 26 - First rounds**

Bass and I ended up a building somewhere in Evolutia. Not in the Life Dome. Apparently, the area used for the 2nd part of the preliminaries was too big for just the arena. I wonder why there's such a HUGE space under the city though. They can't possibly have made it themselves. After the tournament i'll check it out. We get told that there are 10 other buildings in the city, and get escorted back to the Life Dome. Both of us get the 2 best rooms at the very top of the Life Dome. That's what we get for our effort. We didn't lose any match, and got here the fastest. It's a long way up though. Takes us about 2,5 hours from the place where we were to get there. Getting to our rooms from the bottom of the Life Dome even takes an hour. This is where I part with Bass, and he says he'll kick my ass in the tournament because it's my fault he got stuck with me. I'd say it's his fault, but whatever. The view is really magnificent. And there's a device that shows who are already through the preliminaries. It's called a Portable Announcer (PA). As for other things, a very big bed and many other things you'd expect from a 5 star hotel. But... I don't really care about that. I just stare through the window for an hour, before I go to sleep.

In the morning, after only sleeping for about 4 hours, the sunrise wakes me. I never had a sunrise wake me up before. It's kinda annoying, though pleasant at the same time. I pick up the PA, and see that 1 other pair arrived. Regulus and Ryoukusho. Their time? 35 hours and 12 minutes. Exactly 5 hours and 29 minutes more than our time. Gee, I guess being bossed around by Bass was good for something. I wonder if it's his sense of direction?

The following days, more and more pairs arrive while I use those extra days to train. They arrived in this order, with these times.

**_3. Lexer Adario & Zero Zaca: 39 hours, 3 minutes_**

**_4. Summers the Hedgehog & The Malicious: 44 hours, 15 minutes_**

**_5. Sonic the Hedgehog & Lilly Fluff: 51 hours, 37 minutes_**

**_6. Shadow the Hedgehog & Blaze Krezne: 51 hours, 59 minutes_**

**_7. Seria Idon & Jack Matis: 54 hours, 20 minutes_**

**_8. Jody Summers & Jackal Night: 64 hours, 23 minutes_**

**_9. Overdrive Vercetti & Unknown fella: 67 hours, 41 minutes_**

**_10. Solar Blaze & Aquis Krezne: 69 hours, 55 minutes_**

**_11 - 126. Whole bunch of others: 71 hours to 93 hours_**

**_127: Knuckles the Echidna & Rosey Fluff: 94 hours, 19 minutes_**

**_128: Revenant & Guy I feel sorry for: 95 hours, 44 minutes_**

The total time limit was 96 hours, 4 days exactly. I don't know why team Knuckles and team Revenant took so long. Maybe I do. Knuckles is stubborn, and Rosey too. They probably don't get along at all. As for Revenant... I just don't know. Knowing her, she probably just walked all the way or something. So there's 256 fighters in all. That means the winner must win 8 matches in a row, to win. The first fights don't start until a week from now, until everyone is rested. While the others spend most of the time with each other, having fun, I spend most of my time training. Though I do talk a bit with them. The crowd favorites top 15 just got announced:

**_1. Jackal Night (this is strange... they like lunatics?)_**

**_2. Hero Red(uh... guess i'm some sort of real hero to them)_**

**_3. Summers the Hedgehog (evil is always popular)_**

**_4. The Malicious (best known villain of all)_**

**_5. Regulus Bomb (they dig his Bullet Blast, and heavy voice)_**

**_6. RyouKusho Guy (his right arm is a big gun. What more could they want?)_**

**_7. Knuckles (A favorite among the girls, it seems)_**

**_8. Jody Summers (hot chick, cool fighting style and sister of Summers)_**

**_9. Bass Shadnik (Badass bounty hunter)_**

**_10. Revenant (I wonder what the crowd sees in her... Badass chick?)_**

**_11. Shadow the Hedgehog (he's badass, has cool shoes, and is very fast)_**

**_12. Sonic the Hedgehog (crowd thinks he's Shadows younger brother)_**

**_13. Blaze Krezne (he's cooler than his brother, though he's a hothead)_**

**_14. Lexer Adario (a genius and two tails. That must be it... I think._**

**_15. Jack Matis (It's the man of teen hedgehog girls dreams)_**

The main battles start. I'm the first one to go. A guy named Gin Drake is my opponent. He's the guy that Revenant teamed up with, so I expect him to be strong.

_Battle 1, Hero VS Dragon! Hero Red VS Gin Drake_

Gin: "Well, well. You don't look nearly as strong as they say your are. Are you really the nearly legendary Hero Red?"

Hero: "Give it your best shot."

A few minutes after the fight started, I know why it took Revenant this long. It was this guy. He sucks! He can't have won 8 battles alone! Anyway, I take care of this trash easily. Heh, not much of a battle.

The next battle is Jody VS some random guy. He's easily defeated. So... Jody is my next opponent. Alright, I still have a settle to score. For the next week, the others all get their battles. Everyone I want to win, wins easily. Now there's only 128 fighters. There can't be that much trash left now, right?

The next day...

_Unfinished business: Jody Summers VS Hero Red_

Jody: "Are you ready?"

Hero: "Whenever you are."

She starts with her usual pattern, by running straight at me and then trying to make a combo, get me into the air, and then reap me. I have a plan, but I won't use it yet. I block her hits, and counter. She blocks my hits too. Sometimes I let one of her weaker punches just hit me, just to catch her off guard. After fighting for 5 minutes like this, she leaves an opening. I take the chance and give her a full uppercut against her face, lifting her high up into the air. Before she falls to the ground, I try to punch her, but she grabs my arm and manages to throw me into the air. Time to start my plan, before her deadly Sky Reaping gets me. She mostly kicks, so I use my own kicks to connect with hers and stay into the air, pushing her down to the ground again so she can't fly like she usually does. After doing that 3 times, she does the same again. This time, I let myself fall at a different angle, and try to punch her into the ground. "Tornado Uppercut!" She yells. She jumps into the air with an uppercut, surrounded by a tornado of energy and I get blasted a very long distance away. It was the same move as the one she used against Seria, only she combined it with an uppercut. It hurts quite a bit. But it's nothing that keeps me down. I still have plenty of energy left, thanks to her. I absorbed a lot from the energy tornado she used. We run to each other and stop a 10 feet from each other away. She's pretty tired already. Those energy attacks drain a lot of stamina from her. I dash to her, dodging a few of her attacks, and grab her at her neck, and arms. Now she can't move. After a couple of seconds, she releases a burst of energy, blowing me away. Hurts like hell, but it won't keep me down. She falls to the floor then. She spend her last energy doing that, just as I expected. I could've finished it without taking the damage, but I didn't want to give her more injuries.

_Hero Red wins!_

For a few days, the others easily win their battles. My next opponent will be The Malicious. It's going to be a hard battle. Right now, the last fight of the 2nd round, and an interesting one.

_Ryoukusho Guy VS Knuckles the Echidna: Melee VS Gun_

Ryou: "I can't lose. I must win this tournament."

Knuckles: "Huh, I can handle you."

A brutal battle begins. Power vs power. Knuckles and Ryou just keep hitting each other, neither one backing down. This goes on for 15 minutes. They create some distance between each other to recover a bit, but while doing that Ryou also fires his gun. Knuckles gets heavily damaged and stunned by the electromagnetic bullet. Ryou fires one more to finish it. Knuckles is KO.

_Ryoukusho Guy wins!_

So... next up is round 3. I hope i'm strong enough now to beat The Malicious.

**End of chapter**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27 - Hedgehog power battles!**

I was supposed to fight The Malicious today, but something strange is going on. Our battle was supposed to be the first one, but the match-ups are a bit changed. The Malicious and I both have to fight hedgehogs that both lost 7 times during the preliminaries. Instead of the first one to fight, I have to fight somewhere in the middle now. I was put into a different block. The Malicious was placed in that same block too, but we won't fight until round 5 if we keep winning. Did someone do this on purpose? Or do they just want to get rid of the weaker fighters as fast as possible? Well... seems my fight will be in 2 more days. The next fight is a bit of a coincidence too... I wonder if someone is messing with the fights? Metal weapons aren't allowed, or 1-hit-kill weapons aren't allowed, so Solar brought a blunt wooden Windmill Shuriken. The wood it's made of is nearly indestructible.

_Ninja VS Samurai: Solar Blade VS Zero Zaca_

Zero: "Without your buddy you're nothing. There's no darkness either. I'll take you down this time!"

Solar: "I can do without them. I'll show you."

For the first 10 seconds, they just stand there in the same stance. Waiting for one another to move. As soon as Solar moves a bit, Zero sends a Wind Blade his way. It misses, and Solar runs to Zero. Zero manages to fire another Wind Blade before Solar is there. Solar jumps over the Wind Blade, lands right in front of Zero, and before he can do anything he gives him a jumping uppercut. Then in mid air he throws the Windmill Shuriken, but Zero slashes it down and it doesn't hit. Just before Zero lands, 2 Solars uppercut him into the air again. 2 Solars? So he can duplicate himself. A 3rd and 4th one throw 2 Windmill Shurikens to the airborne Zero. Right after that the 2 Solars below him throw 2 of them, and Zero has no way out. Zero curls up, and right before they hit... "Wind Explosion!" An enormous wind blows everything and everyone near him away. I can even feel the strong wind here. The Solar clones disappear into thin air by it, and Solar gets blown a long distance away by it. During the time he's flying away, he creates a lot of clones. I'd say about a hundred in total. As soon as they're created they all assault Zero, and he runs at him as soon as he lands.

Zero puts holds his sword in a position like a samurai readying himself to sheath his sword, and goes on one knee. Before the first Solar clone arrives, he's ready to attack. "Blade storm!" He rapidly slashes his sword, firing numerous horizontal and diagonal Wind Blades while continuously turning in circles too. About half of the Solar clones get exterminated, before they start to dodge each and everyone of them. When they're close enough, Zero unleashes another Wind Explosion, exterminating all other Solar clones. But where's the real Solar? He looks behind him, but there's nothing. A Windmill Shuriken is flying straight into his back now, but Zero quickly turns around to get ready to slash it down. But right then, another Windmill Shuriken hits him at the back of the head, and he staggers. The one heading for him hits his forehead, and right after that Solar jump uppercuts him into the air. Zero unleashes a short Blade Storm in the air, each Wind Blade hits Solar. Solar is knocked out, and Zero falls on the ground. Is he knocked out too? No, he's not. He barely manages to get up.

_Zero Zaca wins!_

Now this was quite an exciting fight! It's a shame that my friend Solar lost. But... it's just a tournament in the end. He can always go back for a rematch. And if he used his normal Windmill Shuriken, Zero would have been decapitated. Great fight though!

No special fights happen for most of the day. They're either between guys I don't know, or someone I know totally dominates one of their opponents. But the last fight of the day... it's a special one.

_Battle of the Krezne brothers: Blaze Krezne VS Aquis Krezne_

Blaze: "Aquis, prepare to lose!"

Aquis: "Heh, since when do little brothers beat their big brothers? Foolish little brother."

Blaze was angered by that comment of his brother. "Blazing Fury!" A HUGE fire storm rages through the arena grounds. The audience can really feel the heat. Aquis manages to shield himself with water. After a few minutes the storm of fire stops. "Heh, do you think that can defeat me?" Blaze's eyes widen. Aquis runs up to him, and they start to fight up close. Though Blaze isn't bad, Aquis is better in it. Each time Blaze is about to hit his brother, he turns into steam, and reappears behind Blaze. It doesn't take Blaze long to notice that, but once he starts predicting where Aquis appears, Aquis starts to appear on random locations. It's like Blaze is fighting with ghosts.

After a while, Blaze completely stops, doing nothing. Did he give up? His brother didn't do much, but because Blaze does nothing he has to attack. Blaze just lets himself get hit quite often. Then Blaze dodges Aquis's kick, by ducking, and he has a chance to attack. A very good one. "Flaming Uppercut!" Seeing it reminds me of the move Ken does from Streetfighter. While in mid-air, he does another move. "Blaze Bullet!" He shoots himself diagonally down, hitting Aquis good. He's earlier on the ground than his brother, and does another Flaming Uppercut to punch his brother into the air, leaving another chance to attack. "Magma Beam!" It looks much like a very thick laserbeam of fire. Aquis is send to the ground, and doesn't stand up anymore. The battle is over. "That'll teach ya." Blaze then says.

_Blaze Krezne wins!_

Cool, he defeated his brother. Those fire techniques of his are really destructive! I wish I had destructive techniques like that. All I can do is... drain energy. Hey... he just gave me an idea. Even though I don't have destructive moves, I can just absorb their moves. The basis they're made of is their own energy, after all. So I still have a chance to win. The 2nd fight of the next day is yet again an exciting one. It determines my opponent for the 4th round opponent too... unless the match-ups get rearranged for that round again. The first battle of the day was mine, and I easily won.

_Metal Translation: Lexer Adario VS Jack Matis_

Jack: "What's a kid like you doing here?

Lexer: "I'm not just any kid."

Lexer runs to Jack, and then does nothing to him. Jack attacks him, but... his punch doesn't hurt Lexer one bit. He doesn't even seem to hit him. Like something is blocking it, and I clearly see his fist hurts. With the other fist, he punches Lexer in the face, but again the same thing happens. Jack turns his fists into metal, and punches another time. This time, Lexer quickly retreats by going backward. Apparently, the metal fists will be able to hurt him. A big cannon is created above Lexers shoulder, out of nothing. It shoots a big black bullet to Jack. I don't know what it's made of. Jack dodges it, and the bullet follows him. Lexer shoots another one, and now Jack is between 2 bullets. They both hit him, and a white flash is seen throughout the arena when they explode. So... Jack is... No, he's not! He's still standing there. He's... metal? Even his clothes became of metal. Lexers cannon returns to nothing. Jack dashes to Lexer, and throws a straight punch. Before it hits, Lexer gets a HUGE baseball bat out of nothing, and he thrusts Jack high up into the air. Immediately Lexer replaces the bat by an even bigger cannon, and he shoots several more of those black bullets while Jack is airborne. So Lexer can materialize and dematerialise metal objects. I'm sure of it. I still don't know about his bullets. They can possibly be dark energy.

Jack punches the first two bullets right and left. The 3rd one he punches into Lexers direction and it hits him, pushing him into the ground. A flash blinds the arena again. Jack lands on the ground, dashes backward to dodge the first bullet he punched away, and punches it to Lexer again. Another flash appears. Before I can see everything again clearly, I see Jack do a jump kick, and the 3rd bullet hits Lexer too. The flash blinds me for about 10 seconds. But I think Lexer is KO, so it doesn't matter. But to my surprise, he's standing when I can see again. He made a very, very BIG cannon this time. At least 10 times bigger than the others. He shoots a very thick black beam with it, and it hits Jack, pushing him into the wall for about a whole minute. After that, the cannon dematerializes and Lexer falls on the ground. He's unconscious, and put all his energy into the last beam. Jack can't possibly have survived that... But he did. His metal armor is gone now, and he falls onto his knees. Then he looks at Lexer, who's unconscious. He realizes it now. He won.

_Jack Matis wins!_

So Jacks armor is nearly impenetrable? And he's my next opponent? In 3 days it's my turn. The remaining fights of round 3 aren't really anything special. And for some reason, Jackals opponents all are really easy. Anyway, 32 opponents remain. Time for the first battle of round 4.

_Bullet VS sword: Regulus Bomb VS Zero Zaca_

Zero: "You're taking revenge for your friend?"

Regulus: "Nah, I'm just here to kick your ass."

Right when the battle starts, a loud bang is heard. Right after Zero flies backward agains the wall while Regulus takes up Zero's spot. Can you say, overkill? Right after that, Regulus does another Bullet Blast. Zero barely manages dodge it, and unleashes Blade Storm while Regulus is recovering. Nearly every one of them hits Regulus. But Regulus can withstand them. He quickly turns to Zero, and does another Bullet Blast. Zero get hit, and flies backward to the middle of the arena. That's about 2 miles. But Zero still stands up. For the next Bullet Blast, Zero simply takes one step to the side, and Regulus hits the wall. He immediately does another, and flies all the way to the other side of the arena. This goes on for 5 more times, when Zero decides the step aside and hit him with his wooden sword while he's Bullet Blasting. Regulus then fall to the ground, and his stomach is hurt. Though he easily stands up. They start to melee fight then, and Regulus seems to be on the winning side.

After fighting for 10 minutes like that, Zero blows him away with a quick Wind Explosion. Regulus does a Super Bullet Blast to surprise him right after. It has a much wider reach than a normal Bullet Blast. But Zero knows Regulus comes straight at him, and initiates a Blade Storm. The Super Bullet Blast comes to a complete stop after that. Regulus fall to the ground. He is defeated. "Phew..." Zero says, and he stands on one knee, leaning on his sword. "You're a tough guy alright."

_Zero Zaca wins!_

Man, I really hoped Regulus would win... Seria wins her next battle, which was a lousy opponent. So in round 5 it'll be Seria VS Zero. I hope Seria wins. Anyway, now it's my time to fight.

_Hero Red VS Jack Matis_

Jack: "The great Hero Red. Yeah, this'll be an awesome fight! I won't hold back!"

Hero: "Sure, i'll make this an awesome fight."

He immediately covers himself beneath his metal armor. My punches right now won't hurt him, I have to find a way to get through that armor. He runs straight at me, and a melee fight begins. I throw a few soft punches, to test how hard his metal armor is. And the thing is... I just can't get through... I think. And while he's in the armor, I can't drain much of his energy. Only a little bit. But I can easily read him, so he doesn't hit me at all. Maybe there's a weak spot? Or maybe his armor wears down after a certain time? Either way, I got to hang on.

Like this, 30 minutes pass. A close combat melee fight. I still have full stamina, and he seems to have gotten a bit slower. But the constant reading and dodging made my sight a little fuzzy. And it gets fuzzier and fuzzier... suddenly I get a very heavy headache. Jacks kicks me, and then punches me, and a fall backward to the ground.

The pain in my head... it keeps increasing. My sight goes black... what's... happ...ning? I... can't hear... anything... Everythings... dark...

Now... I don't hear or feel anything. What happened? Am I dead?

I suddenly wake up in my hotel bed. So... I lost... I take a look at the PA for the upcoming battles, and the date. But to my amazement... I won?

_Hero Red wins!_

**End of chapter**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28 - Path of destiny**

I see the date on the Portable Announcer. So the 4th round is over. The next one starts in 2 more days, because the fighters need enough rest in between. I'll go and pay a visit to Summers, who's room isn't far away from mine. As I open the door, two familiar figures are standing in front of me. Jody and Summers. They were planning to visit me, it seems. "Hello Hero, I thought you'd be awake by now." Jody says. "Hey Hero, are you feeling okay?" Summers asks. "I've never felt so light before. Come on in." We proceed to sit on 3 chairs around a dining table. "I've seen that I won my match, but I can't remember winning. So... does anyone of you know what happened?" I ask them.

**_flashback_**

Hero suddenly is surrounded a dark purple aura, while lying on the ground. Then he stands up. Jack knows there is something wrong, so he backs off. Though it doesn't have much use, in the blink of an eye Hero disappeared from he sight, and stood behind him. Hero then gives Jack a punch in his back, and that part of the supposedly unbreakable armor breaks. Jack still has enough power left, and quickly takes a distance again, restoring his armor. "So, this armor isn't made of steel. I was wondering why it was so flexible, and why you could still move this fast. It's electricity, isn't it?" Hero says. "Man, your power exceeds your near legendary status." Jack doesn't realize that Hero isn't himself right now, because he doesn't know him. Hero punches him in the stomach, then Hero's aura gets a lot bigger. So big, strong and intense that Jacks armor is fully destroyed, and Jack is blown away. He has a few cuts too. Before Hero reaches Jack to finish it off, Summers steps in and cuts Hero with Exal Grando. Hero's wound heals before any blood comes free, and he seemingly starts charging for a big attack. Seria uses her wires to move Hero quickly to the middle of the arena. There, Hero unleashes a lot of energy. It leaves a big hole in the ground of the arena, and on the upper side of the arena too. It's about a mile wide. After that, Hero's unconscious and Seria uses her telepathic wires to put Hero on the ground.

**_end flashback_**

Summers: "And that's what happened. Your opponent was unconscious before you were, so you got the win."

Jody: "We spoke to The Malicious after that. He said your evil just started to awaken. He can't wait to fight you."

Me: "Evil within me? Hmm, whatever it was, I won't give in to it. Even if it means I'll lose the fight. I already know why it happened."

Jody: "You do?"

Me: "I got too caught up in the fight. Instead of searching a way to hurt him, like I usually do, I just wanted more power to hurt him. And then... I wished for more and more power, resulting me in losing my cool. When the pain entered my body, I wanted even more power, because I could hardly move."

Summers: "I think we should find a way to seal it, and that you should just withdraw from the tournament."

Me: "No way! I won't withdraw! If I was fighting anyone else, I might. But I just want to do the upcoming fight."

Summers: "And then you'll turn evil again? I won't allow it."

Me: "Don't worry. Like I said, I won't give in to my desire for more power. Even if it means losing."

Jody: "I believe you."

Summers: "... ... ... Hmpf, I'm only letting you fight because my sister believes you. When something goes wrong, don't blame me if you end up dead this time."

Me: "I won't."

Summers: "Come Jody, let's go."

Jody: "Go ahead, I still need to discuss something."

Summers: "I think i'll just"

Jody: "Without you, bro."

Summers takes his leave. He seemed somewhat annoyed though.

Jody: "I let Tails do what you asked me to."

Me: "And the results?"

Jody: "There is definitely something deep below Evolutia. According to him, it's something that makes it possible that everyone from another world can do something special. I asked him not to tell anyone about it, except for Sonic. He'll be joining us. And Seria was eavesdropping on me and Tails when we had the conversation, and she threatened to tell the others if she wasn't allowed to go with us. When the tournament is over, we'll check it out."

Me: "So many. I thought I was going alone with Tails and Sonic. I should've expected you wanting to come too. But why are you going?"

Jody: "Because The Malicious is also planning on going there after the tournament. I have techniques that can penetrate his shields. Are you sure about it? About going there?"

Me: "Yeah, I must go."

Jody: "What are you going to do there?"

Me: "Probably destroy it. It's a shame we'll probably lose our special powers, but someone could use them for the wrong things."

Jody: "But what if something else happens? Something bad. Won't you be responsible for it? Won't you be hated?"

Me: "I don't care. I can't go against things I have to do."

Jody: "You're just like The Malicious in that aspect. Anyway, good luck with your next fight. I'll see you later."

Me: "See ya."

So the plans are set. Soon Sonic, Tails, Seria, Jody and myself will explore the depths of the underground area of Evolutia. The time for the 5th round arrives. The arena is kinda... there's a big hole in the upper part of the arena. And there's a big steel plate that replaced the damage I did.

_Government girl VS terrorist: Seria Idon VS Zero Zaca_

Zero: "I don't take it easy on girls, just so you know."

Seria: "Good boy! But even with full power you won't be able to win."

They carefully close in the distance, not coming too close to each other. Seria makes the first move, by lifting Zero with her telepathic wires, but before she has him all tied up he fires a Wind Blade that hits her. "Foolish girl." Zero dashes to her, and slashes his wooden sword horizontally to hit her. She blocks it with wires, and starts off a combo on Zero. When Zero recovers he immediately interrupts her combo and hits her with a vertical slash. Not enough to stop her from hitting, so she continues her combo. But she misses, and Zero starts off a combo. She uses her wires to slow him down and backs off. "I shouldn't have tried close range fighting with you. But I have other ways." she says. Zero rushes toward her, Seria grabs steers his sword with her wires so that it hits Zero's face. He won't release his sword yet, so she uses him own sword against him, perfectly steering it with her wires. But he still won't let it go. Seria teleports behind him, and combo's him while also letting him hit himself with his sword. Then she grabs him from behind, and he can't move. "Give it up, you can't defeat me." she says. "Yeah, right. Wind Explosion!" Seria can't hold him any longer, and is blown a long distance away. In the air she teleports right behind Zero's back again, and tries to do the same, but Zero quickly turns around and slashes his sword. Seria manages to barely dodge it. She quickly teleports behind Zero again, Zero slashes, and Seria teleports to the other side again. She trapped him, and now Zero's arms are stuck. She unleashes a rain of punches and kicks in his back.

Zero does another Wind Explosion to escape. Seria teleports to the other side of the arena, so she doesn't get hit. Zero is loose now, but he wasted a lot of power. Seria teleports back, and Zero already readied a Blade Storm. He fires it, but because of his twisting and turning Seria catches him with her wires in no time. After that she teleports to his back again, and continuously keeps hitting him. Zero doesn't have the strength to unleash another Wind Storm, and is knocked out soon.

_Seria Idon wins!_

Yeah, she won! She falls on the ground after that's announced. I knew those abilities of her drained a lot of strength! Though it doesn't really seem like they do. The 2nd fight of the day is now.

_Elemental masters: Blaze Krezne VS Bass Shadnik_

Bass: "Hah, this'll be easy."

Blaze: "I'll burn you till you're nothing but black ash!"

"Blaze Bullet!" Blaze immediately does, trying to get to Bass very fast and deliver a hard hit. Bass slams his fist into the metal place beneath, and a big pillar of earth blocks Blaze. He crashes right into it, and is shortly stunned. The pillar disintegrates, and Bass gives Blaze a very hard punch in his stomach, continues it with an uppercut and then slams him backward. "Is that all, you wimp?" Blaze is angered, and Blaze Bullets to him. Bass blocks him with another pillar, but Blaze destroys it with a flaming uppercut. Right after that, he does another Blaze Bullet and this time he does hit Bass. He uses the same tactic now that he used against his brother. He does a Flaming Uppercut, to throw Bass into the air, then a Blaze Bullet to go through him, but as he does that a pillar shoots out of the ground and hits Blaze. Bass lands on his feet, and as soon as he does Blaze hits him with another Blaze Bullet. Blaze recovers fast in the air. He must've practiced that a lot. Blaze throws Bass into the air, and shoots Magma Beam. It hits Bass... or at least it seemed like it hit him. He is surrounded by a shield of earth. On his way down he slams Blaze into the ground. He grabs him, and throws him away, but as soon as Blaze is released he does a Blaze Bullet and hits Bass. It's immediately followed by another flaming uppercut, but Bass is already shielded by his earthen barrier. Blaze has no nearly ran out of strength, but Bass too from constantly taking hits and his earth manipulation seems to drain a lot of his energy too. Blaze is in the air, and Bass takes this chance. He jumps up to Blaze and throws him to the ground while raising a pillar at high speed to hit Blaze on his way down. Blaze is bumped upward, and does a Blaze Bullet to the airborne Bass. Bass falls to the ground, and Blaze too. But Blaze is knocked out, and Bass is the one that stands up.

_Bass Shadnik wins!_

Good fight, even though another one of my friends lost. But they all have to lose, if I am to win this tournament. Next up, my fight. I can see Summers standing by with Exal Grando. He doesn't seem to believe I won't unleash my evil powers. I'll make him believe.

_#1 anticipated fight: Hero Red VS The Malicious_

Malicious: "Ready to unleash the evil within? I'm looking forward to it. Go ahead, make my day."

Hero: "Sorry to disappoint ya. I'm not planning on giving in to my desire for power this time. I don't need it to defeat you."

The fight starts of rather intensely. Instead of putting his shield up, The Malicious rushes me and fights normally. His hits are powerful, even when I block them. He dodges all my punches, and when I finally find and opening he blocks it with his shield. The small shield breaks, then explodes and I'm temporarily blinded for a few seconds by it. That's enough for him to get a few clean hits in, and floor me. I stand up, smirking at him. That fool doesn't realize I still have full stamina thanks to him, though it hurts like hell. His shields have become useless for blocking my attacks now too. "What did you do?" He asks. "You'll find out soon enough." I throw a straight punch, and he puts up another small shield. My punch goes right through it, allowing me to hit him right in the face. I then proceed to combo him, while he constantly puts up shields. But they don't work. Soon enough, he is floored. He easily stands up though."I get it now. You absorb the energy of my shields. That way you keep all your power, and keep your stamina high. Then I just have to make your body unable to fight." Oh, crap. He already got it... Ah... I throw another punch, and he dodges it. Right after it I do a roundhouse kick, but he dodges that one too. He starts attacking, but I read them perfectly and dodge them easily. I see an opening, but before my attack lands I get hit by an explosion from behind. He put up a shield behind me, and let it explode? That bastard!

Before I can stand up, he creates a shield above me, and let's it explode, pushing me to the ground again. I roll to the side, but he already created another shield, and it explodes while i'm in it. He's not giving me a chance to stand up. And the pain is become unbearable. But my body will just have to move. I gather some strength, and jump right through the next shield he created and absorb all of it for new strength. What the? On purpose he put less energy in it? This guy fights smart. In my next attack rush, I manage to hit him many times. Apparently his power is running low. I keep hitting him, but... A big bang blows us both away. He hit himself with his own technique on purpose? He slowly stands up, shaking on his legs he is now. It takes me even longer to stand up. "Come on, unleash your hidden power." He says. "Not even in your dreams!" I say to him. Then I fall to the ground. I'm still conscious... but my body won't move. "Heh, you'll step over to my side someday. I have patience."

_The Malicious wins!_

Damn it! I lost... Oh well... At least I enjoyed the fight. The audience really like the fight too, though they were all expecting me to lose my control. The next fight doesn't start until an hour. It doesn't take long before I can move again, and a few bandages are enough to cover my wounds. Time seems to be flying. Before I know it, the final match of the day is on the verge of starting. I'm just in time to watch it.

_Haunted by their past: Summers the Hedgehog VS Shadow the Hedgehog_

Shadow: "Your friend lost before he got to fight me. Disappointing... just like you."

Summers: "Yeah, it'll be a disappointment for you when I still stand strong at the end of this battle."

Shadow shows of his superb speed right at the start, and dashes right into Summers, who flies backward for 30 feet. Shadow jumps, and does a homing attack. "Wave Motion Beam!" Shadow gets blasted onto the ceiling of the arena by this powerful move from Summers. Looks a lot like Goku's Kamehameha from Dragonball Z, and anime I used to watch. This is a very wide beam. Shadow falls down, and doesn't seem to have any damage. "Chaos Control!" Shadow yells. Summers suddenly falls on his knees with a lot of pain in his stomach. So Shadow snatched a Chaos emerald before he entered the tournament. After 10 seconds Summers stands up again. Shadow does another Chaos Control, and Summers gets hit again. "You fool, you cannot defeat the power of Chaos Control." Shadow says to him. Suddenly, Summers has a Chaos emerald in his hand. Shadow looks confused. "But how did you?" Shadow runs with very high speed to Summers. "Like this... Chaos Control!" Summers disappears for a few seconds, Shadow falls on the ground, and Summers re-appears again. Shadow then immediately stands up, and hits the emerald with full speed. It shatters.

Knuckles runs in to the arena. Quickly grabbing the pieces of the emeralds. "Grr, Shadow. You owe me now!" he says. "I owe you nothing. You shouldn't have lost sight of the emerald in the first place." Knuckles wants to attack Shadow, but Sonic quickly stops him. "What are you doing Knuckles? You can't just interrupt his fight?" he says. Sonic and angry Knuckles leave the arena, and the fight continues. Summers prepared his next move already. "Heaven Cannon!" A big white energy ball flies with high speed towards Shadow, and hits him. Within a seconds Shadow then is behind Summers, and continuously does homing attacks. Whoa, so he can do it like in the games? Summers isn't given a chance to do anything else anymore. "That's what you get for fighting like a coward and using my tools."

_Shadow the Hedgehog wins!_

I was hoping Summers would beat Shadow, so he could fight The Malicious. Shadow was stronger than I thought. That kind of speed together with his power is really overwhelming. I can't wait to see Sonics fight tomorrow... though I want Overdrive to win. So... the next day... fight 1.

_Friend VS Legend: Overdrive Vercetti VS Sonic the Hedgehog_

Overdrive: "I admire you, I really do. But I can't just let myself lose."

Sonic: "Best of luck, pal. You'll be needing it."

Sonic opens in the same way Shadow did, by immediately trying to dash into his opponent. Overdrive expected that, and creates an explosion that blows Sonic a backward before he's there. Then he creates an explosion behind Sonic, and punches him in the gut. He continuously keeps doing that. It takes a few minutes before Sonic finally passes out.

_Overdrive Vercetti wins!_

I didn't expect it to be over this quickly. Sonic was caught in a fatal trap, of which there was no escape with his abilities. On the other hand, Overdrive's explosion control is flawless. I feel kind of bad for Sonic... Losing in the 5th round. It wasn't even much of a fight. Sonic shouldn't have wished him good luck, for his own good. Anyway, next fight. Though i'm sure Jackal will win.

_Beyond good & evil, the strange ones: Goldie the Great VS Jackal Night_

Jackal: "Jackal take you down, down, down! Down, with you, the heretic."

Goldie: "What kinda freak are you? I'll win this tournament, even if it's the last thing I'll do! For justice, for Lenna..."

Jackal runs at a very high speed to Goldie, measurable to Sonics and Shadows speed, but Goldie easily punches Jackal in the face, making him fall and fly forward. I'm sure he wasn't this fast before. Jackal rolls to Goldie at immense speed, and tackles him. Goldie falls on the ground, Jackal rolls over him, jumps up and hits him a few times on the back. After that, Goldie sweeps Jackal to the ground again, and punches him a few times in the face. Jackal kicks Goldie in the back, making him stagger. Jackal makes a break dance like movement, sweeping Goldie to the ground and he ends it with a hard kick in his back. Before his 2nd kick arrives, Goldie grabs Jackals head and slams it a few times into the ground. Jackal manages to get loose, and quickly rolls away and stands up. His nose is bleeding, and Goldie doesn't have anything yet. So this Goldie guy really does live up to his name. I wonder why he doesn't have anything? I'm certain he took a few very good hits. His back should be broken by now.

Jackal quickly runs to Goldie, and sweeps his feet from the ground. Before Goldie falls, Jackal lands a few punches, gives him a knee in the back, then back-flips and hits him with it, and while Goldie lands on the ground Jackal punches him in the face. Goldie grabs Jackals arm, and slams him a few times in the ground before throwing him away. What the hell is that Goldie guy made of anyway? He doesn't even bleed. The fight continues, and each time it ends up with Jackal taking a distance. Goldie is getting tired, after this goes on for 20 minutes, but he still doesn't have any wounds. Jackal runs up to him again, and Goldie slams him in the face. Jackal falls on the ground again, and Goldie gets ready land a kick on him. But Jackal doesn't move, which he normally does. He's... knocked out.

_Goldie the Great wins!_

I was really expecting Jackal to just beat Goldie. Jackal only had wimpy opponents in the main rounds until now... guess the wimpy opponents ran out or something. The last guy, I thought was a wimp, advanced to the 6th round. Further than me he got. Apparently, he wasn't such a wimp after all. Those 4 losses he had during the preliminaries must've been lost on purpose.

_Fighting flowers: Lilly Fluff VS Rosey Fluff_

Lilly: "I will defeat you, and make you promise you won't ever hurt someone again."

Rosey: "... ... I'll... ... ... Prepare to lose!"

Rosey... she's nervous. I wonder why? It's not just beating up her sister... she's done that before. Rosey flies towards her sister at high speed. She goes right through her! Rosey flies another few times right through her. Lilly is able to make herself untouchable. The next time Rosey does that, Lilly grabs Rosey's legs once she passed her. They fly around and around... and around. Lilly can't do anything but keep holding her sister at the speed that they're moving. Rosey makes many dive flights, and Lilly can barely hang on. Lilly's hands slip away, and she's headed towards the ground with high speed. It was from pretty high up too. She hits the ground, and is instantly knocked out. Rosey looks at her sister, and flies away.

_Rosey Fluff wins!_

I wonder what Rosey has in store for her sister. I doubt it's something bad. She looked sad. The final fight of the 5th round is coming now. Both of them are very strong.

_Unwanted by the afterlife: Revenant VS Ryoukusho Guy_

Ryou: "I never thought you would show up here. You're hurt bad, the government might be able to heal you."

Revenant: "I'm dead already. I have been for a long time. I can't be healed."

Ryou: "Then I shall release you from your suffering."

Revenant: "I'm not suffering, you fool. Let's just battle, now!"

She's... dead? So basically... she's a zombie. Ryou fires a few electromagnetic bullets right from the start. Revenants doesn't care about dodging them. She gets hit, but they're not effective at all. She runs up to Ryou, and starts swinging and hitting wildly, powerful hits. Ryou blocks them all with his gun arm. When an opening arrives, he gives her an uppercut hitting her chin, with the top of his gun arm. She's stunned for a few seconds, and he blasts her backward with an extra strong electromagnetic bullet. Before Revenant is near him again, he charged up another powerful one. Revenant simply dodges at and starts fighting up close again. This time she hits Ryou very often, and even manages to make him fly backward. When she jumps toward him, Ryou blasts her away, yet again. Revenant lands with her back on the ground, before she stands up Ryou pushes her deeper into the ground by slamming his gun in her stomach. After that he just keeps blasting electromagnetic bullets, until she kicks him. Revenant stands up and does another attack rush on him, flooring him. And then continues it. Ryou blasts her away again.

For a very long time they continue like this. I estimate about 2 hours. After that, both of them show some signs of being tired. Revenant stops moving for a few seconds, while she stands. Ryou shoots a few electromagnetic bullets again, but she's protected by a shield. The Malicious was standing in the arena, near them. "Why are you interrupting our fight?" Ryou asks. "The fight is over. Any more and she'll really die." So he's a bit worried about her. I guess he does have some emotions. "But boss! I still feel" Revenant gets interrupted by The Malicious. "Shut up! You don't feel pain. You're my faithful servant. I can't let you die in a mere tournament." The Malicious carries her on an energy shield, and they leave the arena. Ryou sighs as a sign of relieve.

_Ryoukusho Guy wins!_

So this is it for the 5th round. In 3 days the 6th round will start. I have to leave my room behind, now that the 5th round is over. It's a shame, but I lost. Apparently I wasn't good enough, but maybe I am if there's a next time. The next day, i'm walking outside with Jody, Seria and Tails. Discussing the plans a bit. Suddenly, that Goldie guy shows up. "Aren't you guys from the tournament?" He stares at both of the ladies. "It's a pleasure to meet such beauties as you." I can see why he is named like that. "Ah... thanks." Jody responds. He stops staring at them now. He's good, knowing when to stop. Anyway... "So you think you're gonna win?"

Goldie: "Of course. I have a reason why I can't lose."

Me: "I'm sure some others also have reasons why they can't lose."

Goldie: "Of course, but none are as good as mine... I think. Anyway, I heard you guys talking about sneaking into the underground area after the tournament."

Seria: "You were eavesdropping?"

Goldie: "N no, I wasn't. I just happened to hear your conversation because the subject was interesting. After that I saw it was you guys. So can I join?"

Me: "Don't you have a tournament to win?"

Goldie: "It's after the tournament, right. It'll take a short while before I can use the power when I win, but checking it out seems to be worthy."

Tails: "Welcome to the club then!"

What the hell? They just accept him? Never mind... there are so many already. One more wouldn't hurt... I hope. We introduce ourselves, then part. He has to train. These days seem kind of long, but slowly the day for the next tournament matches arrives.

_Good girl, bad guy: Seria Idon VS Bass Shadnik_

Bass: "Let's see how tough that government hedgehogs really are."

Seria: "Very though, I assure you."

At the start of the fight, Bass lifts Seria into the air with a pillar from beneath her. Doesn't have much effect, Seria then simply teleports behind him, and hits him a few times. Bass is only slowed down a bit by them, and he punches her quite a distance away. Seria caught his arm with her wires, and pulls him towards her. Without any way to go, Bass flies right towards Seria, who kicks him in the face. Bass flips over and falls on the ground. Seria pulls him again towards herself, and kicks him again. The speed at which he's going should cause quite a lot of damage. Bass uses Seria's wires against her now, and she makes him fly toward his fist by pulling them. Seria teleports behind him, and Bass quickly turns around and uppercuts her. So he was expecting that. Seria kicks Bass to the ground on her way down, capturing him in her wires again. She then starts of combo-ing on him. Bass lets a pillar hit her from the side, and he's loose from the wires. Then he uses a pillar from behind her to send her towards him, and at the same time he punches her. After that Bass falls on his knees, he's kind of tired. Seria is knocked out by the hard blow. They're pretty smart and skilled fighters, but they don't have too much endurance.

_Bass Shadnik wins!_

Oh man... another friend out. At least there's still a few in yet. Next battle.

_Darkside hedgehogs: The Malicious VS Shadow the Hedgehog_

Shadow: "So you are the feared Malicious? You don't look too special to me, then again, I am the ultimate life form. No one is special compared to me."

Malicious: "Quite an ego you got there. It's THE Malicious for you. Let's see if you're still this confident when I beat that smirk from your face."

Shadow immediately dashes into him before The Malicious can even put up a shield. He didn't expect him to be that fast. "I've been holding back my speed in the previous fights, if you must know." Shadow say to him. The Malicious creates a shield around Shadow. "You're gonna protect me? You shouldn't have." The shield explodes, and a black flash dashes into The Malicious again. Shadow was too fast for the explosion. The Malicious grabs Shadow before he can take a distance, throws him into the air surrounded by a quick shield he created, and lets it explode. Before Shadow hits the ground, The Malicious uppercuts Shadow in his back, multiple times. Shadow lands on his feet, and The Malicious kicks him, making him fall backward. "I'm impressed." Shadow says when he stands up. "But it's not good enough." Right after that he dashes another time towards The Malicious, but The Malicious was prepared this time. He let his shield explode at a time, that Shadow would exactly run into it. But Shadow stops right in time. Wow, him stopping instantly at that speed. Seemed impossible. Shadow jumps over it, and continuously homing attacks The Malicious. But he already had a shield up, one strong enough to hold Shadow off. Shadow isn't stupid, so he does something else. Light dash! It goes right through the shield, without destroying it, but he does hit The Malicious. "I'll just finish it off now, Shadow says. He does another few light dashes, which take up a few seconds to charge, and The Malicious is grounded. "You were foolish to believe you had a chance against me, the ultimate life form."

_Shadow the Hedgehog wins!_

Shadow basically has nearly the same abilities as Sonic. And Overdrive beat Sonic. Does that mean he could beat Shadow too? I honestly don't know who I want to win in the next battle. Overdrive is my friend, but Goldie has good reasons to win. Well... one must lose. And i'm not able to help either of them anyway. I'll just see who'll lose.

_Massive damage: Overdrive Vercetti VS Goldie the Great_

Overdrive: "Hah, i'm well on my way on winning this tournament!"

Goldie: "But this is where you stop. My desire to win is greater than yours."

Goldie starts off by waving to Jody in the audience. Before he knew it, he got punched in the gut by Overdrive. What an idiot... "The fight already started, bud." Overdrive says to him. Goldie pushes Overdrive away, seemingly not having any pain. "Oh yeah, I got a bit distracted by a pretty lady." Overdrive punches and kicks him, Goldie doesn't do anything. "What the hell are you anyway?" Overdrive asks. He takes revenge on Overdrive, by punching him also in his gut. "What the hell am I? Invincible, that I am!" Goldie then responds. I might even believe that, but no one is invincible. Goldie wants to return a combo to Overdrive, but Overdrive blasts him away with an explosion. Then he blasts him back, and punches him backward. He does that very often. It's the same trap that Sonic got caught in, and made him lost. After getting hit like that for 10 minutes, Goldie still doesn't have any wound or scratch. Goldie escapes from it, and combo's Overdrive who's recovering from doing so many explosions. It doesn't take Overdrive down though. Though Goldie doesn't have any wounds, his power and speed have gone down dramatically. Overdrive finds an opening and counters him by grabbing an arm as Goldie punches, and throwing him into the air. Then he starts off the same tactic he did before, only it's in a vertical way now, instead of horizontal. He stops after 5 minutes. Goldie still moves a bit, but he isn't able to stand up. "Damn it! Move body, move!" Even though his body can't be hurt, his energy can run out. And that's what happened in this case.

_Overdrive Vercetti wins!_

After that got announced, Overdrive falls onto the ground. Doing that many explosions must be very exhausting. I do feel a bit bad for Goldie... I wonder what his reasons are, and if he can get to his goal in another way? I'll ask him later. And now, for the last fight of the 6th round.

_The beauty and the beast: Rosey Fluff VS Ryoukusho Guy_

Ryou: "I will be gentle, miss Fluff."

Rosey: "No need for that. I'll... never mind. Let's just get on with this."

Rosey flies toward Ryou at the start of the match. Ryou fires an electromagnetic bullet. A pretty small and slow one. Rosey just flies into it, and falls to the ground. What! She could've dodged that easily! Ryou is surprised by this too. Rosey stands up, and flies up. Ryou fires another few of his small special bullets. These ones are faster. Rosey gets hit by the first one, and falls into the others ones. Hmm... it doesn't seem she wants to win. She doesn't stand up anymore now.

_Ryoukusho Guy wins!_

The match is over, and Rosey stands up. It looks like she has enough strength left. She leaves the arena pretty fast. I guess she only cared about defeating her sister... but I have a feeling it's something else. I'll be looking forward to the semi-finals in just 3 days.

**End of chapter**


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29 - The strongest hedgehog!**

Back at Tails lab I am now. It has been quite empty for a while time, since everyone had their own room in Life Dome. The bell rings, and I open the door. I greet Rosey. "Hello Hero. I'm here to speak to my sis. Do you mind if I come in?" Hey, she's friendly now! "Step aside now, or i'll force my way through! It's urgent!" Or maybe not... "She's in her room. You still know where it is, right?" I say while stepping aside. She walks inside. I'm following her, just in case she wants to beat up her sister again. "Hero, I know what you want to do. But this is private, between her and me." I scratch my head. "If you kidnap her, or do anyth" She interrupts me while I was trying to say something. "Don't worry about it." But I do worry! Guess i'll just... leave them.

I'm on my way to the house section, when I see something interesting happen. Regulus steps on a handbag and Amy gets mad. "Regulus! Watch where you're walking you pervert! That handbag cost me a lot of money!" She's still calling him a pervert? "I'm not a pervert! I tol" He stops speaking when Amy grabs her infamous Pico Pico Hammer. She swings it, and Regulus dodges it and runs away... my way. The furious Amy just runs and bashes me aside, to get to Regulus. She bumps into Knuckles, and falls. "You, don't get in my way!" She says loudly against him. "But" He tried to respond, but she swings her hammer his way. He runs away, and she starts chasing him too. Talk about being blinded by rage. I decide to pick up the bag, and clean it. That should make her happy. It's actually kind of fun... being with them all. Even with all the fighting.

A few days later, it's time for the 7th round of the tournament. The semi-finals. It's too bad the Fluff sisters left. But they had a lot gain in on, so it's good the both of them will be traveling for a while. I'm glad that Rosey isn't working for The Malicious anymore. I'm surprised that he just let her go... though I shouldn't be.

_Bad boys: Bass Shadnik VS Shadow the Hedgehog_

Shadow: "Foolish lowlife hedgehog. You might as well give up right now."

Bass: "You know what they say. No pain, no gain. Bring it on, blacky!"

Apparently, Shadow is insulted by that. He starts off with a light dash, only slam into an earth pillar from Bass. While Shadow is dazed Bass combo's him head on. It takes a few seconds before Shadow can escape the deadly combinations. "Fooli" Shadow is punched right in his face before he can finish it, angered he is by that. "Don't talk so mu" Bass wanted to say, but Shadow flip kicks and hits him beneath his chin, sending shocks to his brain. For about 10 seconds he gets beaten to a pulp until he can properly move again. He blows Shadow away with a pillar from his own back, and jumping on it. From there another one comes to hit Shadow from the upper-side. I expected Shadow to be... squished like a pudding. But Shadow is strong enough to catch it, and throw it away. Bass jumps at him. Shadow counters it by jumping with high speed against him, he flies about 30 feet backward because of that, and lands on his back. He stands up very fast, and punches Shadow who had a homing attack on the way. Shadow flies now 50 feet backwards. Shadow runs fast towards him, and tries to homing attack Bass again. Bass grabs him and bashes him into the ground, repeatedly. Shadow doesn't get up anymore. The ultimate life form is defeated. Guess being the ultimate life form doesn't necessarily mean being the ultimate warrior.

_Bass Shadnik wins!_

It takes an hour before the next fight starts. I'll be rooting for Overdrive, of course. I was nearly sure Shadow would win the tournament from this point though, because he basically owned nearly every opponent. Anyway, time for a snack. Me hungry. When i'm done eating, together with some others, Shadow walks into the cafeteria. Disappointed, of course. He sees Sonic sitting at my table, and walks up to him. Is he gonna challenge him or anything? "Sonic, i've proved I am your superior! I truly am th" He gets interrupted. "Shut up! You lost, you're out. That's all that matters. You forgot I defeated you more than a year ago!" Sonic says, teasing Shadow. "What! I challenge you! Right here, right now." He got angry again... "See you guys. I gotta go." Sonic says, and he runs away. Shadow chases him, and both of them are gone. Eh, I doubt they'll stop their rivalry anytime soon. "Sonic is stronger than Shadow. Why can't he accept that?" Amy wonders. Of course she's biased when it involved the hedgehog she wants to marry. I'd say their still equal. So we head back to the arena now, for the next match.

_Blast battle: Overdrive Vercetti VS Ryoukusho Guy_

Overdrive: "This'll be a tough fight."

Ryoukusho: "Indeed... for you."

They both attack each other with fierce attacks right from the start, not using their special abilities yet. Overdrive is much fast than Ryou and hits him much more often, but each of Ryou's hits push Overdrive away. Their very strong. Overdrive starts using small explosions to misdirect Ryou's punches, and get a few hits in himself. It doesn't take long before he get countered by a big electromagnetic bullet when he does that, and receives a lot of damage from the upcoming blows. The most devastating one, a wide swing with the gun arm, gets parried with a kick from Overdrive just in time. He then uses an explosion to blow Ryou towards him, and he uppercuts him. He continues using explosions from behind Ryou and giving him hard blows. It seems Overdrive has the overhand in this fight. Ryou suddenly dodges one of Overdrives hits, and gives him a 2-hit combo with his gun arm, continued by a fully powered electromagnetic bullet that blow Overdrive halfway through the arena. It takes them a minute to reach each other again. I think Ryou already has another fully charged shot by now. Overdrive uses an explosion again to let Ryou fly towards him, and Ryou expect that. So he gets ready to dodge Overdrives hit. But Overdrive isn't that stupid, and blows him backward a bit first to confuse him, and then immediately after that forward to combo him, and he blows him backward before Ryou can do anything. Ryou shoots another charged shot as he flies away, which hits Overdrive and sends him flying through the arena again. Overdrive slowly stands up... but he gets blasted by another electromagnetic bullet before he can see what's going on. That one was a little too much, Overdrive won't get up.

_Ryoukusho Guy wins!_

So the final match will be between Ryou and Bass. I fought on nearly equal ground with Bass some time ago. Does this mean he grew more than me, or that the strongest fighters in the main rounds are about equal? Either way, the winner of the tournament will officially get the title of 'The strongest hedgehog in the world'.

So now... 3 days later... the finals.

_Grand Finale: Bass Shadnik VS Ryoukusho Guy_

Bass: "Tough guy, eh? Let's see who's the better fighter."

Ryoukusho: "I'm sorry, but I cannot let you win. This tournament... is mine to win."

Their left hand fists clash at the beginning of the fight. Right after, Ryou tries shooting Bass, but Bass uppercuts the gun upward, causing Ryou to shoot it to the ceiling. It hits a few light and the arena is a bit darker. Bass follow up with some very strong blows, the last one causes Ryou to fly backward 30 feet. He uses a pillar to return Ryou, and then hits him in his gut, while Ryou is heading with full speed towards him. Bass knows Ryou is very tough, so he proceeds to hit him there. Ryou, for the first time, shows some real signs of pain. He shoots a fully charged electromagnetic bullet from close up, while Bass is too busy to notice it. Bass is, just like Overdrive was, send flying backward halfway through the arena. Another shot follows, but Bass dodges that one. Ryou now charges something else. I don't know what it is, but it's not like his normal shots. He's done when Bass halved the distance between them, and he immediately shoots it. It's a very wide purple electromagnetic shot. Bass creates a stone shield to protect him. So he too, still had a trump card. Bass shoots himself forward with one of his own pillars, before letting his shield fall apart. While flying towards Ryou, he uses other pillars to keep Ryou from shooting him. Bass lands on the ground before he reaches Ryou, and then combo's him. He stops the combo soon after, and uses pillars from all sides to continuously hit Ryou, hoping to finish him off. After a few minutes... Ryou has been out of sight for a while now. Bass might've killed him... Not good at all. It's an outcome I couldn't predict.

_Bass Sh_

A sudden burst of light blows away all the pillars. There's a hole in the ground. Ryou must've been sheltering there. He crawls out of the hole, and blasts the near exhausted Bass one more time. Bass... he'll be lying on the floor for a while.

_**Ryoukusho Guy, winner of the tournament! The strongest hedgehog in the world!**_

So that guy won. He won't be claiming his prize until tomorrow. A short time before he does that, it's time for me and some friends to sneak into the underground arena unnoticed. And i'm willing to bet that The Malicious will go then too.

**End of chapter**


	30. Final chapter

**Final chapter - Change**

It's kinda dark. Soon Ryou will get what he wants. I heard he wanted materials that can restore his skin, and his lost arm. Anyway, we just broke in. I haven't seen anyone following us, so we must be the first. That's Sonic, Tails, Goldie, Jody, Seria and myself. We packed a lot of stuff, since it's apparently very, very deep. Pretty close to the core of the planet. It might even take more than a week to get there. "Hey Tails. How do you know the source we are searching for is at the very bottom of this underground area?" Goldie asks. "I adapted the energy scanner so that it traces the special energy lines the source gives to each hedgehog from another world. After echo-scanning the whole area, I couldn't get a clear vision of what's here, near the bottom. Something is disturbing the vision, but the energy lines certainly go in there. And you're also from another world, aren't you Goldie?" Tails responds. Goldie widens his eyes. "How di" He gets interrupted by me. "Didn't you listen? The scanner shows energy lines connected to each hedgehog from another world. If you're from another world, the line shows it. Hey Tails, shouldn't it show the location of the others then?" I ask. "The machine isn't powerful enough to follow all lines at the same time. Only a few." He responds. Too bad. Could've been handy...

1 day passes, and we don't encounter anyone. By now, we've come at the very bottom part of the tournament. There's supposed to be some kind of hidden entrance here. After 3 hours of search, Seria is the one to find it. It was well hidden. No wonder no one knew about it. A small door opens slowly, and an awful stench comes from it. The stench of rotten and dead bodies. When we step inside, there are a few. There are a few bugs crawling here and there too. Strange looking bugs... but I don't feel like observing them. Though i'm not afraid of bugs, i'm not too fond of them either. There are torches burning to light the small halls and thin paths. Seems they've been burning for a very long time already. Must be some kind of magic force that keeps them burning forever... or something. Another 2 days pass... and then we encounter someone, but he doesn't see us yet. He has short light-grey fur, and wears the same kind of coat and hat Ryou was wearing. He's wondering where to go now. I don't know him... I think... though it feels like I do. He's startled when he sees us. "Whoa... uhm... I wasn't following you or anything! ... ... ... Ah..." He panics, and tries runs against the wall trying to get away, then falls to the ground on his back. Jody walks up to him, and bends over him. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" She asks. She takes a few steps aside then, and he stands up. "Don't you know who I am? I'm Ryou!" He says. Ryou? He can't be, can he "I have already been operated, and as you can see, I have a new right arm, and new shiny fur! It's a shame that it still has to grow a bit. I'm sorry I wasn't polite." He says. "You still haven't told us why you're here." Seria implies. "That's right. ALL your friends forced me to follow you. They shouldn't be too far behind. A pink hedgehog was chasing me with a giant hammer, so I went ahead. Regulus and Overdrive went into other sides." Ryou responds. "Crap... how did they find out?" I ask myself.

"Times a wastin'. Just keep moving forward and let them catch up." Sonic says. He disappears in a flash. His impatience just amazes me. He returns in a flash too, as expected. "Ah... you guys lead. I don't know which way to go, hehe." So we go ahead, and take Ryou with us. I'm sure Lexer or Robotnik made a device to track us, though I didn't want them here in the first place. No use keeping friends out of this kind of stuff, it seems. And i'm sure the lost ones will manage to take care of themselves too. A day passes. We're resting in a big hall with a few entrances. There's still no sign of The Malicious... maybe he won't come? The others catch up while we're resting, at least... most of them. Regulus and Overdrive are still missing. When I ask about Solar, they say he still had some business to take care off. Strangely enough, Blaze was kind enough to take his brother also with him. And surprisingly, Jack is also here. But... I still wonder...

Me: "Why did you guys follow us?"

Summers: "You think I can just assume my sister will be safe with any of you?"

Goldie: "I'd die for her. That's how safe she'll be."

Me: "You'd die for any girl."

Goldie: "Isn't that a good thing?"

Robotnik: "We found out you're planning to destroy the source. I want to research it a bit first."

Me: "That's why I took Tails with me..."

Robotnik: "I'm still smarter than him at the moment."

Amy: "Eggman is pretty cool now the he's a hedgehog. And manly! Too old though."

Goldie: "Look at me while I flex my muscles, pretty one."

Ryou: "I'm sorry to say this... but you're hitting on a 13 year old girl."

Goldie: "She's only 13! I thought she was 16! At least i'll have Jody to comfort me... she's 17 too, right?"

Jody: "If you actually took the trouble to look through my tournament profile, you'd know that i'm nearly 19."

Goldie: "You are? But you'll"

Jody: "Shut up, I won't be your girl. Try someone else!"

Goldie: "Bummer... Seria, will you be my lady?"

Seria: "You don't want me. Trust me on that one."

Goldie: "You're so pretty, I can stare at you for hours."

Seria: "Agh... I want to get rid of you... so i'll reveal my secret. I used to be a guy."

Goldie: "You're kidding!"

Me: "She was dead serious when she spoke to me about it. Truth in it is that she's not attracted to males."

Goldie: "... ... ... I'll shut up for now."

Summers: "That's only because you ran out of girls to impress."

We were a bit caught up in our conversation. I didn't notice, but Sonic, Tails, Lexer, Jack, Blaze, Aquis and Knuckles are gone. Where did they go? They left the supplies though. They left a note, saying they went ahead already. It's because they were all impatient, and Lexer always wants to stick with Tails. It might take days, maybe even weeks. Why be in a hurry? Morons that they be. I'm not gonna chase them anytime soon. I'll finish this break. About an hour later, just before we want to go further, Overdrive and Regulus arrive through a different entrance.

Regulus: "Hero, good to see you."

Me: "I knew you 2 would catch up sooner or later! Glad you're here."

Overdrive: "Where's the others?"

Robotnik: "They went ahead."

Overdrive: "Why?"

Robotnik: "Because they had no patience. It's their fault if they get lost, because they left all the equipment here."

Overdrive: "We have to search for them!"

Amy: "They'll manage. Sonic and Tails always do."

Regulus: "But they have KNUCKLES! He always gets others or himself into trouble!"

Me: "He only did it a few times before... okay... maybe a lot."

Amy: "Ah... i'm getting worried."

Seria: "Relax, they'll be fine."

Jody: "Even though their complete idiots."

Me: "You read my mind or something?"

Amy: "You think they're idiots?"

Jody: "A bit."

Me: "Liar..."

Jody slaps me in the face for that. What? I was only telling the truth. Anyway, after some arguing, we go after them. Or at least, they go after them. Jody forces me to carry nearly all of the equipment myself as a punishment. I'm lagging far behind them. Maybe she's the one that needs a few slaps in her face? Pretty soon we encounter the brothers. They're not like buddies anymore. They're arguing.

Blaze: "They went this way!"

Aquis: "No, this way. I can smell it!"

Blaze: "You have a cold. You can't smell it!"

Aquis: "I can, come on now."

Overdrive: "Ah... guys. Both of you are wrong."

Blaze & Aquis: "And who are you to say that! Hey, what are you guys doing he-... hey STOP it! ... ... ..."

Overdive: "I got some kind of map. I'm the navigator. Just follow us."

Aquis: "Why should I?"

Blaze: "Aren't you always supposed to be coolheaded? You're hotheaded right now!"

Aquis: "Silence, foolish little brother!"

Blaze: "I'm a centimeter bigger than you! You're the lit"

Jody slaps both of them in the face. I speak softly towards Regulus and Robotnik, so Jody won't hear me. "Don't you think... she kind of a... slapping machine?" They both nod their head in agreement. Jody's ears jump up, and her face turns a bit mad to me. She looks like she's an evil hedgehog now. Oh... I forgot hedgehogs have much better hearing than humans... "So you think i'm a slapping machine, huh? I'll show you some slapping!" I get slapped 3 times in the face... not just the usual ones. But very hard ones. She even hurts her hand a bit. Just a few more and i'd be KO'ed or something... I noticed her brother hardly objects anything she does. I think he doesn't want to be slapped. Anyway, we proceed, and another day later we encounter Knuckles. He's punching the walls in anger. The others just ignore him and pass him by. I decide to greet him. "Yo Knucklehead, what's up?" He sees me, jumps at me, and holds my neck tightly, while we fall to the ground. "First Sonic calls me Hero! And now you call me the same stupid name Sonic always calls me!" He yells. He angry... "Sorry for that." I say. He calms down, releases me, and we stand up. "Where are they?" Ryou asks. Knuckles points straight ahead. "I'll just follow you guys, and i'll punch Sonic in the face if he doesn't apologize."

We travel 2 more days through the same pathway. We don't encounter a single road split. From above, someone falls right onto me! He was on the ceiling. I have lots of trouble getting up. It's Solar! What the? He was following us too? "Ugh... Act like a real ninja and stay hidden, will you? Anyway, didn't you have some business to take care of?" I ask him. The others have stopped now, and are overhearing our conversation. "Already taken care of." He responds. I should've asked it different. "What did you do, actually?" I ask. "Leaving Chao in good hands. I couldn't take him with me to this place. Might have been too dangerous for him." He says. So that was what he did. Anyway, he joins us. Sonic & co didn't take anything with them? Don't they need to eat by now?

The next day, we encounter a 4-way-split, and Jack is lying on the floor there, unconscious. What happened? We take him along with us, and go straight ahead. Shortly after we finally arrive in another big hall, where we rest. Jack wakes up while we're talking. Most of them are too busy notice. Just when I was about to say something... "So... Jack. What happened?" Robotnik asks him. He's still not very well."Ung... The Malicious and his minions. They surprise attacked us... Shadow too. They... knocked me out and chased after Sonic, Tails and Lexer." He leans against the wall while saying that. "How did you get food and water?" Regulus asks. "Compressed food and water. Very small and compact, but one drop of water and it turns into food and bottles of water. It's something that Lexer invented after perfecting Tails's theories." I didn't know that. Instant food they have... and I have to carry around the full weight of our food. Makes me wish Tails finished working on instant food before we left. I also wish The Malicious wasn't ahead of us...

After the break, we continue. Yet again, another long path and no splits. This time it's a wide path though. Within several hours, we see Revenant. She's walking back, with a big bag on her back, and Lexer! She's also eating something. Looks like brains... though not very fresh ones. I think the bag is filled with the brains of hedgehogs that lost their lives here. "What are you doing with our friend?" Jody asks. "I'm going to eat his brains in a nice spot. Something wrong with that? These dry brains taste good, but fresh ones taste special." She says while taking a bite from the dry brain. Looks more like hard dust or something... I wonder why she likes it. Even more so... did she- "Did you kill Lexer!" Jody asks her. "Meh... not yet." She says. "No, I'm taking him with me! His brains are mi-" She gets assaulted by Jody, Regulus, Seria and Blaze. We tie her up, and take her with us, and we take Lexer with us too. Another few hours later he wakes up. "I have such a bad headache... what happened to me?" He asks. "Your girlfriend was about to eat your brains." Regulus responds. "My girlfriend? ... Revenant? No way! Lilly's my girlfriend!" Lexer says a bit irritated. "No, she's not. Only in your dreams... Anyway, Regulus was just joking about it." I said. "Now I can tease you about it. Lexer and Lilly, sitting in a tree, K I-" He gets interrupted by Lexer. "Shut up!" Heh, kind of irritated he is. "So you like older girls?" Jody asks him. "Hero and Jody, sitting in a tre-" Jody slaps him very hard. Ouch, that must hurt. But he deserves it. What the hell is Lexer thinking? Bad mood? She's just a friend, like everyone else. Guess it must be his age that gives him that slightly perverted thoughts. "Don't talk trash about my sister, will ya?" Summers says.

The hall keeps getting wider and wider. Several hours later, someone is waiting for us. Zero Zaca he be. As soon as he sees he, he starts firing Wind Blades. Many of them. Most of us get hit a few times, but we're a big group. Within minutes we have him pushed against a big door, with no way to go. Not much later he's tied up, just like Revenant. That'll teach him for trying to go against a whole group on his own. I wonder what's behind these doors. They're HUGE. "The rest of them is behind that door. I don't know what's going on, but they've been in it for about 16 hours already." Zero informed us. We leave everything behind, except the weapons before opening the door. What awaits us?

The HUGE door isn't nearly as tough to open as it suggests. "What? I couldn't get that door open, no matter what I did!" Zero says. Slowly it opens... then it suddenly flies all open. A warm wind and very bright and colourful room welcome us. Everyone of my friends suddenly fall to the ground, all of them lose consciousness. I see Sonic, Shadow, Tails and Jackal lying on the ground in the room too. Then I see a really big, black emerald. It's not the master emerald, that's for sure. "Hero! This is... the source. It will grant me ultimate power." I turn my head to The Malicious. He's protected by a shield, that probably explains why he isn't unconscious. As for me... I think it's because of my energy draining ability. I grab Exal Grando out of the right hand of Summers. "Why haven't you claimed this ultimate power yet?" He looks me briefly in the eyes, then looks down at the ground, before admiring the source again. "I haven't figured out how. Not yet, at least." I look at the source. It's really beautiful, a marvelous sight. I get a headache, a very heavy one. And my body seems to lose control too? I haven't given in to my desires? Why is an evil force trying to take me over. Summers suddenly transforms again, into his evil side again. Then he blows me and The Malicious right against the source. The shield of The Malicious breaks, but he won't go down just yet. "Damn it!" He yells, and he quickly creates a new shield. I think... yeah... I should do that. My body hardly listens now, but with brute force I can still control it a bit. I turn my head around, and look at the source. "What are you doing? You can't do that!" By using the evil energy within me, Exal Grando turns into the light sword. I stab it into the source. It slides in very easy. "Nooo, damn you!" The Malicious yells. He hits me with his fist in my back. Summers fires a very thick energy blast at us, but behind me... the source explodes. Then... a flash... must... hold... on...

I wake up. When I stand up, it feels like i've been lying there for months. It takes me a while to realize... but i'm in my own bedroom again. It's empty. My PC, my bed, even my Nintendo DS, Xbox and Gamecube! All gone! So time passed while I was gone... I'm still small though. I take a good look at myself. Still a hedgehog? When I go out of my room and explore the house, I find out that it's empty. So... they must've moved. A lot of time must've passed, it would be strange if they were still living here. I go outside, and I see some humans. They don't notice me because it's night. I run around a bit, to see what going on with the world right now. I find a newspaper on the ground. Looking at it's state, I'd say it was from today. There's an interesting article on the main page. It's about an outbreak of about 100 hedgehogs roaming around the world! Some causing mass destruction too! It's titled... Hedgehog Mania. Pretty cool. I'm going to visit my friends... after i've payed a little visit to my mother, brother and sisters of course. But first... i'd have to find them. Shouldn't be hard at all. Adventure here I come!

**End of Sonic: Hedgehog Mania!**


End file.
